Naruto: Darker Than Black
by HWUTS
Summary: Naruto witnesses the killing of the one person who loves him, and blames it on himself. The Nine Tails decides to give him a way out of the pain, and Naruto takes it. Strong Naruto, Strong Hinata. Don't make fun of my bad summary :P
1. Chapter 1: No More Pain

Hello my friends. After reading a lot of stories and watching Anime, an idea popped into my head. I haven't seen a fic like this, so I decided to dip my hand into writing fanfiction. The first chapter is short, but its more of a prologue anyway. So, reveiw and tell me what you think, or just read. Oh, I don't own Naruto.

**Naruto: Darker Than Black**

**Chapter 1**

"Naruto, run!" A woman's voice called out to the ten year old sitting on the table. Naruto recognized the voice instantly as the voice of the kind woman that had taken him in only a few months before. However, although he had been with her for that long, never had he heard her voice sound so terrified.

Dropping his food back onto the plate, he got up and ran to the living room so he could find out what had scared his 'foster mother' so much. But as soon as he stepped around the bend, he stopped in his tracks, horror showing on his face. Standing there, with a hand covering his 'foster mother's' mouth, was a brown masked man, dressed very similar to that of the Konoha ANBU that he saw on occasion.

The only difference was the small symbol on the masked man's forehead. Instead of a leaf, it showed two old shaped rocks. The woman's eyes went wide as she looked into his eyes, and right when he was about to confront the obvious ninja, blood was suddenly raining everywhere. And all Naruto could do was stand there, eyes wide with shock as he watched the life drain out of the woman's eyes, the one who had taken him in when no one else did.

Naruto continued to stare at the body as a short sword was retracted from the now gaping hole in the woman's chest. He slowly backed up until his body hit the wall, shaking his head back and forth, willing himself to wake up from this nightmare, wanting the sudden pain that stabbed through his heart, a feeling he had never felt before, to go away.

But it was not to be, and terrified eyes looked up into the face of the killer. He still had the short sword out and was advancing slowly. As the ninja got closer, Naruto could feel a burning fury unlike any he ever felt before surge through him, and with new found strength attacked the ninja.

However, he didn't even get two feet on the floor before the ninja disappeared. Naruto's eyes once again widened in surprise as he felt overwhelming pain in the area of his stomach and looked down to see the same sword that had killed his foster mother sticking out of his stomach. Tears ran down his face as he felt his strength leave him as the sword was pulled away.

Before he fell, the man in the mask grabbed his hair and held him up. Naruto was almost too shocked to pay attention to what the man decided to whisper in his ear.

"This is what you get for being too weak," Naruto heard the deep voice say to him. "The woman that took you in when no one else acknowledged you is dead. So will all those that you hold dear. The whole village will burn, the people at the Ramen stand I've seen you visit, and especially the Hokage. They will all die because you were too slow, too weak, and too pitiful to protect them."

The man dropped him on the floor and Naruto felt something sharp press against his throat. "But you don't have to worry about that, you weak fool. My mission was to kill you, Konoha's Jinchuriki, so that we could have an easier time when we attack. Not that we had to worry about someone like…" he never got to finish as at that moment the front door burst open and a Konoha ANBU raced in and punched the Ninja about to kill Naruto so hard he flew out of the room.

Another ANBU landed next to Naruto and pressed fingers to his throat to make shore he still alive. For his part, Naruto continued to stare at the woman that had loved him, who had taken him into her home. And because of him, because he was this so called Jinchuriki, she had been killed. Killed trying to protect him, yelling for him to run. And he had done nothing, could do nothing.

It hurt.

Wasn't he training to be a ninja. Wasn't he training to become Hokage, the strongest in the village so he could be recognized? But he was on the floor, bleeding and dying, his heart feeling as though it came close to being ripped out his chest, tears running down his face for the first time since he was kicked out of the orphanage. It didn't add up.

_Yes it does_, a voice sounded in his head as the ANBU picked him off the floor and flew out the door as fast as they could. _You have been too blinded by emotions_.

Naruto's strength left him as the ANBU jumped onto the top of a house so he couldn't keep himself conscious long enough to question where the voice came from. It didn't matter though, he would find out soon enough.

Indeed, as soon as his eyes closed he heard that same voice call to him. Only it was louder, more close. And although he didn't want to, he opened his eyes to find the one who wanted to talk to him. Perhaps it was a good thing, he thought. It would detract him from the pain.

When he opened his eyes he saw he was in some type of sewer. The walls were red, and he realized right away that he was sitting in water. But he didn't mind so much, as it felt soothing. He also noticed that there seemed to be a faint red glow in the water that he sat in.

His back, he noticed, was pressed against what felt like hard metal. Turning, he saw a large bar rise up high until darkness took it. But what really surprised him was what was sitting on the other side. It was a woman, long red hair reaching all the way until it sunk into the water. Soft red eyes looked at him with concern, and as she reached a hand out to caress his cheek, he found he couldn't move.

"My sweet little Naruto-kun," she spoke caringly. "It hurts, doesn't it, kit."

All Naruto could do was nod as he felt more tears run down his cheeks, the feelings of helplessness, shame, guilt, confusion, and many others suddenly surging back into the forefront of his soul.

"Do you want to make it stop?" the woman asked. Naruto didn't hesitate to nod. "Do you want to make them go away?" another nod. "Do you want me to help you never feel this way again?"

"Yes," Naruto croaked out.

"Very well, Naruto-kun," she said softly as she removed her hand. Then she stood and motioned for him to do so as well. Once he was up, he looked at the woman hopefully. She smiled and raised her hand. In it was a white mask, a blue lightening bolt on its left side forehead going through one of the black tinted eyes. A thick red line barely upturned in the appearance of a smile completed its looks.

"Wh…What is this?" Naruto asked, taking the mask. "And who are you?"

The woman smiled. "I have many names, but for now you may call me nee-chan," the woman said. "Why I am in your mind, which is where we are if you have not guessed that, is a discussion that will have to wait for another day. For now, know that you can trust me."

Naruto hesitated for a second before nodding.

"Now, this mask is what will hold your feelings, anything that hurts or causes you pain. You noticed that you no longer feel the hurt you were feeling only a little bit ago, yes," she asked. Naruto immediately noticed those feelings were gone. "Well, they were taken away by the mask in your hand."

Naruto felt a brief moment of elation and happiness, but he immediately noticed it dimmer than usual. "It doesn't only take away the pain, does it?" he asked in a subdued tone, and the woman behind the bars smiled, apparently glad he made the observation himself.

"Yes, the mask comes with a price. Using it will not only dim the pain you feel now, but all feelings you may feel. There are less important draw backs, but they are not important now. What you gain is much more beneficial."

Naruto had to think for a second about that and was a little wary. The woman saw this and spoke up again. "All those hateful glares will no longer bother you. You won't have to act happy all the time. And most important, the guilt and sorrow of this night won't drown you into despair."

A good trade, Naruto thought. "But can't I use it only this once, just to get rid of tonight?" he asked.

The woman gave a look of sympathy before answering. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. Once you accept it, it will always be with you."

Closing his eyes, it took a couple minutes for Naruto to think about it before he once again nodded. "What do I have to do?"

The woman smiled wider, looking pleased with his choice. "Bite your thumb to draw blood, and then swipe across the lightening symbol. Once that is done, hand the mask to the girl behind you."

Shocked that there was someone else in his mindscape he didn't know about, he turned around. The girl that stood behind him looked to be in her teens. She was wearing a purple sundress with a black collar with sleeves, and her pale irises stared blankly ahead. Her pale grey hair was also tied into a pony tail with purple and black ribbons.

Naruto was about to question whom she was when the woman behind the bars answered his question. "That, Naruto-kun, is only a partial representative of me. A part of myself so to speak. If you want, you may call her Yin."

"And I just give her the mask, and everything will be done?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, you will never have to worry about being hurt as much as you did today ever again," the woman answered.

Sighing, Naruto bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood and swiped it against the bolt on the mask. He felt a small amount of chakra go into for a moment. Once done he turned and handed it to the silent girl, Yin. She took it from him without speaking and he watched as she put it on her face before it disappeared right before his eyes.

Behind him, the woman's smile turned predatory and a dark gleam appeared in her red eyes.

&&&&&

Sitting in a chair somewhere secret and well hidden from prying eyes sat a man with bandages covering the right side of his face, his right arm invisible under his shirt. Kneeling before him were two ninjas, both dressed in ANBU style clothing, one with a white mask, the other a brown.

"Report," the bandaged man spoke with authority. The one with brown mask answered.

"Danzo-sama, the mission was a success and went perfectly. I was able to get around the ANBU that the Hokage had set up to watch over Uzumaki with ease. I then proceeded to kill the woman staying with Uzumaki in front of him, allowing him to get a view of my mask. I then delivered your message to him."

Danzo nodded in approval. He had tried to figure out a way for the woman not to be killed, but in the end knew it was necessary. For the good of the village, the boy needed to get stronger, and in the current path he was going he would never be a ninja. When he found out the boy had failed the Academy graduation examine, Danzo knew that he needed to do something. Of course, if Sarutobi had given him the boy from the very start, he would never have to go through such drastic measures.

"Did Sarutobi fall for it," he asked the other ANBU dressed nin.

"Hai," the addressed answered. "I just got out of the meeting and he believes that it was an Iwa assassin. He wants to wait until Uzumaki wakes up for confirmation before deciding what to do."

Danzo nodded satisfied. Hopefully, the boy will have the needed motivation to not only stay in Konoha despite everything he went through, but the motivation to push himself like never before. And when Danzo finally took the Hokage seat, he would have a powerful and completely loyal weapon at his disposal. Then nothing would be able to in the way of Konoha.

"Very good. Get rid of that disgusting mask and destroy it before you leave. Dismissed."


	2. Chapter 2: Accomplishment

:Don't own nothing you see in this story that you recognize :)

**Naruto: Darker Than Black**

**Chapter 2**

"_So what is this, Nee-chan," the ten year old Naruto Uzumaki asked the woman in his head. He was referring to the spectra floating on the surface of the water, and if Naruto still knew how to feel fear to the extent as normal people, he might have been a little scared of how much the bluish spectra resembled a ghost. It had one large empty eye socket, a regular sized eye socket, and an irregular shaped mouth._

_As it was, since the week before when his world came crashing down, he hasn't been able to truly feel any regular amount of emotion._

"_That is one of the benefits of accepting my gift," the woman in his head spoke. "By giving Yin your blood and some of your chakra, you formed a contract of sorts. Because of that, she is able to move outside of your mind. Right now, she is not able to interact with the environment, but she can still be used as a scout or something similar. All you need is to do is be touching water, and she will be able to roam where ever any other water is at by a half a mile."_

_Naruto continued to study the spectra of Yin in the stream before it disappeared for a moment. A couple seconds later it came back and Naruto heard Yin speak for the first time._

"_There is a little girl watching you from behind that large tree by the water," she said. The voice was soft, almost a whisper, and Naruto was surprised it sounded like it came from the spectra and not from the inside of his head. _

_Naruto turned and walked out of the water, immediately noticing the spectra disappearing, and started for the tree and little girl supposedly watching him._

"_The more you use Yin the stronger she will become, Naruto-kun," the woman's voice sounded in his head. He nodded absentmindedly as he saw an ebony haired, white-eyed girl suddenly pock her head from behind the tree, give a startled yelp, and then disappear again. It took Naruto a moment to remember the name of the weird girl the always turned red when he looked at her in the Academy 'playground'._

"_Hinata, what are you doing here?"_

**--2 Years later—**

Naruto opened his eyes to a new day, the sound of his alarm clock ringing in his ears. Shutting it off, he saw it read five thirty. Sitting up, he looked around his bedroom. It was basically empty, one drawer by the window had all his clothing in it, he had a bed, and a nightstand. Nothing littered the floor at all as his Nee-chan explained to him why it was important to stay tidy, and he decided to listen to her.

Getting up he walked to the drawers and took off his pajamas and gama nightcap. Nee-chan had tried to get him to get rid of the night cap as well, but he had not let that happen. After putting some shorts on, he walked out the room into the living room. Here was a couch and an exercise mat, as well as a table. On the walls were posters of past Hokages, as well as a calendar.

Stepping closer to the calendar he saw that today was the day where everything would change, the start of his ninja career. Soon he'll have a sensei that would help him get stronger, teammates that he would gain the trust of so they could watch his back. Besides, if he was going to burn Iwa to the ground, he was not so ignorant to think he could do it on his own.

Nodding to himself, he went into the kitchen for a cup of water and drank it down. Then he went back into the living room to start his morning exercises.

&&&&&

The academy classroom with the graduate class was just as rowdy as it usually was when Iruka walked into the room. Sakura and Ino were arguing with each other over who got to sit next to Sasuke and five other girls, in what Iruka calls the Sasuke fangirl club, was trying to get around them to steal the seat while they were distracted. He could see Sasuke trying to maintain his broody expression and act like he didn't care, except the tick of his eyebrow showed he was starting get really annoyed.

Shikamaru had his head down somehow able to sleep in the seat next to the Uchiha despite the loud yells and screams of the girls. Iruka knew it wouldn't last long though, as Ino would once again try to impose her will on the boy and get him to move.

Sitting a ways from them were Kiba, Shino, and Choji. Choji and Kiba seemed to be in an animated discussion of some sorts, although by the way Choji was so into it, Iruka suspected it had something to do with food. Akamaru sat on top of Kiba's head, and whenever Kiba seemed to make a point in the conversation, the little dog found the need to bark. Iruka couldn't tell whether or not Shino was listening into the conversation, as the boy's face was hidden and he was just staring at Akamaru.

Iruka let his eyes roam the rest of the room, unconsciously picking which ones in this year's group would truly be a ninja and which ones would fail when his eyes landed on a boy with yellow hair. '_Naruto,' _Iruka sighed mentally. The boy was not the same as he once was, and although it was a good thing for his ninja career, as a person he was not so sure.

He was unnaturally quiet compared to what he once was. He never sought out attention, unless it was to ask about something he didn't understand. His orange jumpsuit was gone, and he instead wore black pants and a black long sleeved shirt with a large orange strip going down the sleeves, with an orange spiral in the back. He never did any pranks and never seemed to truly smile either, and when he did, Iruka always noticed it was fake and insincere. As a matter of fact, the only person he ever sees a real smile for was the person sitting next to him, Hinata.

She had also changed all of a sudden as well, and like Naruto it started two years ago. It had been gradual and not as abrupt as Naruto's, but it was there. She smiled more now, never put her head down, and only seemed to stutter when Naruto gave her one of those smiles that said he was proud of her when she does something right.

"Alright you knuckleheads, shut-up!" Iruka yelled out to the class and performed his demon head genjutsu. The class immediately turned their attention to him, those who haven't found seats found them quickly.

"Now today is an important day, as you all know. If all of you studied as you were supposed to and worked hard, I have no doubt that you will pass. We'll start with the handwritten test first, then move outside where the other teachers are waiting to do the Taijutsu and accuracy tests. Afterwards, we will move back here where you will be called into the side room to perform a jutsu the teachers decide to give you. Are there any questions? Good, let's get started."

&&&&&

Naruto was satisfied with the way things were going so far. The written test was by far the hardest for him. Even with Hinata's help over the past two years, he still couldn't answer all of the questions. But he was still confident that he passed it. His Taijutsu had always been average, especially with no one to practice with seeing as Hinata didn't know the academy style real well and refused to use her gentle fist style on him.

His accuracy was the best in the class he believed, or at least one of the best. The only people he saw do as good was the stuck up Uchiha and stoic Shino. And now they were waiting to be called into the side room to do the last portion of the test as well as get their results. Hinata had already went in and come out with her headband. She smiled at him and wished him luck before heading out into the hallway.

Naruto was spinning a kunai in his finger as he waited to be called. He wasn't real worried. He could perform all the Academy jutsu with ease, except the Bunshin. But he had asked Iruka to make sure that was not what he was tested on, and he agreed after watching Naruto try to perform the technique over and over again. Even Iruka seemed to be at a loss of why he couldn't perform it.

Besides, he had passed all the other tests, unlike the first time he took the graduation examine. Last year he just skipped it, explaining to Iruka that he didn't feel as though he was ready. Which he wasn't, but now he thought he was. He had self taught himself everything he needed, and with his Nee-chan had gained additional skills that others don't have. In addition, he was able to steal some scrolls from some older ninja and learned jutsu that the academy doesn't even teach.

Ino came running out the room smiling and cheering to herself with her headband so Naruto stopped spinning his kunai. Just as he thought, Iruka smiled up at him and called his name. Naruto gave a small smile back before heading to the door and entering. In front of him sat Iruka, Mizuki, Mayu, Kunio, and Nobuaki- sensei sitting at the table.

"Alright, Naruto," Iruka began. "So far you have been doing a very good job. You have second in the class for accuracy, eleventh in Taijutsu, and fifteenth in the written section."

"Thank you, sensei," Naruto gave a small bow of thanks to the man.

Iruka smiled, proud of the once delinquent. "Okay, in light of that and what we talked about earlier this week, please perform a Henge and make yourself look like Mizuki-sensei, and you'll pass."

Naruto nodded and was about to do what he was told but Kunio-sensei raised a hand to interrupt. Naruto immediately got a bad feeling in his gut, but didn't say anything.

"Actually, Iruka-san, the Bunshin is a very important technique to Genin. I believe it is best if he showed us how well he performs that one."

Iruka looked startled for a moment before answering. "Ah, Kunio-san, I have already had this conversation with you. Naruto cannot perform that technique, and I was not able to determine why. But he has showed that he is capable of the others, so that should be enough."

"Quite the contrary, Iruka," Nobuaki spoke up. "As head of the Academy, I made it clear that the graduates must be able to perform the body-switch, Henge, and Bunshin in order to pass. If Uzumaki cannot do this, I'm afraid that he cannot be given special treatment."

Looking livid, Iruka stood up to protest. "But we had already discussed this and agreed…" he stopped as he was interrupted.

"No, we did not!" Nobuaki practically snarled. "You discussed it with your fellow teachers, but did not come to me! Therefore whatever it is that was agreed upon means nothing!"

Iruka stared in shock, unable to believe his ears. "Why would…oh, you bastard," Iruka said to the man before sitting down in a huff. The head of the academy didn't want Naruto to pass, and for some reason Iruka didn't notice until now. It was because of the Demon sealed inside the boy's stomach.

"Naruto," Mizuki spoke up for the first time. "Why don't you try the Bunshin. Just try really hard, and if it is passable, nothing can hold you back from graduating."

Looking back at Naruto, Iruka winced. His face was completely free of emotion, his eyes were dull and empty, almost like he was in a trance. He was about to call out to him to make sure he heard when Naruto raised his hands to perform the technique.

For his part, Naruto watched the argument in detached interest. So, Nobuaki-sensei also hated him, even though he never spoken one word with the man before, just like so many others. He couldn't be more grateful to his Nee-chan and Yin as he was at that moment, when after he performed the technique a dead looking Naruto appeared next to him. It would have hurt so much, the rejection, the disappointment, the bitterness, if in his mind Yin wasn't wearing his white thunder bolt mask and taking all of these hurtful emotions into her before they hurt him.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," he heard Iruka say softly to him. Naruto just nodded and turned around leaving the room behind. Deciding that Hinata didn't need to see him like this, as she hated it when he looked like an "expressionless doll", he jumped out the window of the classroom.

Naruto continued to sit on the swing outside the Academy doors and didn't look anywhere other the ground until the doors swung open. Parents that were waiting immediately swarmed foreword to congratulate their children on a job well done.

"Good job, son!"

"Honey, I'm so proud of you!"

"Bah, I knew you could do it bro."

Naruto watched them from his perch, hearing it all, wondering what it would feel like to have people care about him so much. Then he remembered the woman that had once treated him so, the woman he had got killed and was too weak to protect. It didn't hurt very much anymore, but his mind was now racing in order to find some way out of this situation.

He needed to become a ninja. You couldn't be Hokage without being a ninja. He also knew that without Konoha's support, he couldn't go against Iwa. And he couldn't learn enough without a sensei, so how was he supposed to protect those people that were nice to him, those who actually recognized him.

He was brought out of his musings when he heard someone call his name. He looked up and saw Hinata walking toward him, a sad look in her eyes. She already knew he didn't pass and must be so disappointed. The one she said she admires, even if those words barely affected him, had failed. He was such a failure.

Looking at her he shook his head and she stopped. He got off the swing and left, down an empty alleyway, however, before he got too far another voice caught up to him. Turning, he was surprised to see Mizuki-sensei there.

"Hey Naruto," he greeted him.

Naruto blinked a couple times before answering. "Can I help you, sensei?"

Mizuki scratched his chin. "Not really, but I do feel really bad about this whole situation. Therefore I looked into the rule book, and what Nobuaki said was true."

Not seeing the point in the conversation, Naruto tilted his head, asking silently what the point was.

Mizuki smiled. "But I found a secret way for you to pass. It is a special rule for special circumstances." That got Naruto's attention. "If you can pass this test, you'll automatically become a Genin."

Naruto didn't even think twice. "What do I have to do?"

&&&&&

The mission was easy, way too easy. The ANBU were neglectful, were not as numerous as one would expect guarding the Hokage while he was at home, and the old man, bless his soul, was a pervert. One **Sexy no Jutsu **and he was out for the count. Although to be fair, reading about naked girls and seeing them for the first time in who knows how long are two different things. Oh well, he didn't have the time to worry about the old man's love life, he needed to learn a jutsu from this scroll before Mizuki or one of the other sensei found him.

Opening the scroll and reading the first jutsu on it, Naruto couldn't help but scowl. 'What the hell! The first jutsu just had to be a Bunshin, the only thing I can't do?'

"Tch," Naruto groaned before unsealing a scroll and out came a water bottle and basin. Dumping the water in the basin, he took off his sandal and put his foot in it. "Yin," was all he had to say before he saw a blue spectra resembling Yin's body show itself. "I dropped water bottles all around the forest in a mile and a half radius. Let me know when someone's coming." With that the spectra disappeared.

"Alright, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu…"

&&&&&

Laying in his bed in the middle of the village lay Iruka as he thought about the events of today. It had started off good. The graduation exam couldn't have gone much better, and he was pleasantly surprised with how well Naruto had done in the first three tests. In the written exam, he had gotten a 71%, way better than the 32% he got when he first took the test. His Taijutsu still lacked form, but he made up for it by his speed, surprising strength, and inventiveness. And his throwing accuracy couldn't have been any better, he had only missed three out of thirty targets.

But then Nobuaki had to come in and do what he did. The thing that bothered Iruka was the fact that he should have predicted at least one of the teachers objecting, seeing as Iruka once objected to having the "Demon Brat" in the Academy at one time as well. But that resentment had vanished a long time ago, after Naruto had lost his foster mother and Iruka saw how badly hurt he was. The Hokage had called him into his office, explaining how he and Naruto were similar. He couldn't remember being more ashamed in his life.

But now he needed to do something, perhaps plea with the Hokage and tell him the circumstances. The Hokage had always had a soft spot for Naruto, even if Naruto had stopped going to him on a regular basis after the incident with his foster mother.

There was a sudden frantic knocking at his door and Iruka jumped out of bed to answer it. Opening it, he was surprised to see Mizuki standing there.

"Iruka, we have to get to the tower," he said.

"Why, what's going on?" Iruka asked putting his sandals on and Chunin vest.

"It's Naruto," Mizuki answered. "He took the Forbidden Seal Scroll and ran off with it. The Hokage has called all the chunin to the tower."

&&&&&

"Two people are within a mile," Yin's voice interrupted his deep breathing. He was sweating more than he had ever in his life, and for the first time ever he felt he didn't have any chakra or energy left.

"Thanks Yin," he said to her and took his foot out the muddy ground. He had long since spilled the water basin. Looking around the area and at the splintered trees, holes, and dents in the ground, he couldn't believe that it had taken them three to four hours to find him. He had to be making a lot of noise.

He hurried to finish writing the directions of the jutsu he had been trying and unsuccessfully mastering to practice later. He had mastered Kage Bunshin quickly and now knew why he could not perform a regular one. He had been putting too much chakra into it, where as a Kage Bunshin the more chakra the better. The next jutsu took him about two hours to finally get it down and had tired him out, but it was the third one that really got his attention and sapped him so much.

The third one and the one that was leaving him so drained after only trying it once was called _**Raiton: Shichi Ookami no Jutsu**_. The Technique is a lightening based attack. By manipulating chakra in your hand, you can release it in the form of seven attacking wolves. However, when he tried it he could feel almost all of his chakra get pulled into the technique, and he was able to generate a little electricity in his hand, that burned his hand, before it disappeared.

So knowing he was not going to get any further tonight, he decided to write the mechanics for the jutsu down before one of the teachers found him. He just rolled up both the forbidden scroll and his copied one when he heard someone land in the tree above him. Putting his scroll in his pocket and strapping the forbidden one onto his back he tiredly stood up.

"Yo, Iruka-sensei," Naruto smirked. "Figures you would be the one to find me." However, despite Naruto's unusual cheery greeting, Iruka looked very pissed.

"Na-ru-to!" Iruka yelled before jumping down from the tree to stand right in front of him and getting into his face. Naruto was too tired to take a step back. "What the hell were you thinking!?"

Confused, Naruto just shook his head and asked, "What do you mean sensei? I got the scroll and learned a jutsu so I can be a genin just as Mizuki-sensei told me to."

Startled by what he just heard, Iruka took an involuntary step back. He was about to ask Naruto exactly what Mizuki had told him when he heard whistles in the air. Already knowing where they were heading, he pushed Naruto out the way and took the kunai and shuriken. Luckily they did not go too deep.

Naruto sat on the ground looking at Iruka with shock. Why had he just saved him? He was a monster; he had heard Iruka say it once before right when he got into the Academy. The surprise quickly went away as Naruto began to deduce what was happening, and as he heard Mizuki laughing from the tree branch, he knew exactly what was going on.

"Hahahaha," Mizuki laughed from his spot on the branch. "Isn't this a pleasant surprise? Iruka, how do you always seem to know what the monster is thinking and where to find him? Ah, you don't have to answer, you might aggravate your wounds. Hahaha."

"Mizuki, what the hell is going on here," Iruka asked. "Why did you tell Naruto about the scroll? Why did you lie about making Naruto into a Genin? Why did you just try to kill him!"

Mizuki looked at Iruka strangely for a moment. "Why?" he asked incredulously. "Are you serious, Iruka! Have you forgotten what it is that the little demon did to you!?"

Iruka's eyes widened as the memory of the night the nine tails attacked surged to the forefront of his mind, how he had tried to get to his parents, and how he had found their charred remains after the demon was sealed.

"I see, so you haven't forgotten then," Mizuki said, satisfied. "Naruto! Give me the scroll."

That seemed to snap Iruka out of his trance. He looked over to the boy to tell him to run and not give up the scroll even if he had to die to defend it, but his words caught in his throat as Naruto held up an unfamiliar handsign.

"No," Naruto answered his once sensei, preparing the chakra needed to complete and try out one of his new jutsu in combat.

"Oh," Mizuki smirked, unperturbed by Naruto's stance. "I guess that is to be expected from someone like you. After all, the reason why you're so hated, the reason why no one likes you or loves you…"

"Mizuki, no! That is forbidden!"

"…is because you are a demon, because you are the one that killed so many of the villagers including Iruka's parents, because you are the Kyubi, the Nine Tailed Demon Fox!" he finished in triumph.

Iruka looked back to Naruto in near panic, wondering what the boy could possibly be thinking, but what he got was even more surprising. By the look of confusion of Mizuki's face, he was astonished too.

Raising an eyebrow, Naruto answered, "So? What's your point? I already know that."

Coming out of his shock, Mizuki snarled. "Fine, demon. If you want to play games, I'll just kill you nice and slow." With that he pushed off the tree and ran at Naruto. Iruka made to intervene, but one of the kunai had stabbed his right shin, and he fell. He saw Naruto whisper something when Mizuki was half to him and he was covered in white smoke.

Mizuki came to a stop, and when the smoke cleared, there stood two Naruto's, perfect copies. "Hehehe," Mizuki smirked. "Is that the best you can do demon boy? A Bunshin? Don't make me laugh!" he finished, once again closing in on the two Narutos.

Both of the Naruto's charged in as well, and if Mizuki were a genin he would have been hard pressed to keep up with the speed. As it was, he had no trouble. He was a chunin, and one of Naruto's teachers, so he knew how fast the demon boy was and how to deal with it.

But first he needed to find out which one was the Bunshin and which was real. Taking out a kunai and sliding off the windmill shuriken from his back, he threw the Kunai at the one on the left and the shuriken at the other. The shuriken hit its mark in the stomach while the other one blocked the incoming kunai. Confused, even more so when the one hit with the shuriken disappeared in a poof of white smoke, he almost got hit with the side kick the demon boy aimed for his head.

Ducking, he grabbed the foot and slammed the boy into the ground on his back. The boy grunted in pain, and almost faster than Naruto's eyes could see, Mizuki slammed a kunai deep into his chest.

Grinning wickedly, Mizuki couldn't help but laugh as the boy grabbed his wrist in an attempt to stop the blade. "Nice try, demon! But now its time for you to die!"

To his and Iruka's utter shock, Naruto just laughed as blood leaked out his mouth and wound. "Hehehe, Mizuki-sensei, I have to thank you. It's because of you I learned three new jutsu. One of them was Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Another one was Bunshin Daibakuha."

Eyes wide at the implications, Mizuki tried to get his arm free, but before he could wrench his arm from the boys grasp, the clone exploded. Mizuki flew backwards into a tree, his stomp of a right arm bleeding out and his face burnt. Sliding onto the ground and breathing hard, he faintly heard the air whistle before he felt a stabbing pain in his left hand.

Screaming in the abrupt pain, he suddenly felt a presence in front of him and looked up into the blue eyes of the demon boy.

Naruto looked at the man impassively before stomping on the top of the kunai that he had thrown to prevent Mizuki from using that hand to defend himself. He grabbed the scratched up headband protector Mizuki wore and threw it to the side before he reached down with his other arm and gripped the man's head as best he could with his small hand.

"You have no right to wear that protector, and you have no right to live after what you did to Iruka-sensei. He is someone who finally recognized me, and has tried to help me. I will protect him, as well as all the others who have recognized me for me. And just to let you know, I am not the Kyubi. The Kyubi's a girl. Do I look like a woman to you?"

Mizuki just stared at him fearfully, and both could hear Iruka in the background telling Naruto that it was enough, but Naruto was not listening.

"Goodbye, Mizuki-sensei," he said before charging electricity down his arm and into Mizuki brain. Mizuki started to thrash a little and got out a guttural scream of pain before he stopped moving, blood seeping out his ears, his face frozen in a now silent scream.

And Naruto felt nothing but accomplishment. Not sadness, not remorse, not confused, just a vague sense of accomplishment. He had done it for the first time, and he felt a small sense of pride that Yin apparently could not dull enough for it to go away.

He had killed an enemy, and he had done it to protect someone precious to him.

&&&&&

Hope you like, review and tell me your opinions and to ask any questions.

Ja ne!

--**Bunshin Daibakuha**: Clone Explosion

--_**Raiton: Shichi Ookami no Jutsu:**_ Lightening Release: Seven Wolves Technique


	3. Chapter 3: My name is

: I own nothing that you notice came from other things, namely Naruto.

**Naruto: Darker Than Black**

"_It is clear," Naruto heard Yin's voice speak to him from behind. He nodded and looked across the room to Hinata, who had her Byakugan active and was looking at Yin's upper body with awe. It was not the first time she saw it in the nine months that she's been his comrade, and was not the first time that Naruto wondered what it must look like to someone with the Byakugan._

_When Hinata noticed him looking at her, she blushed slightly and turned to the tub of water behind her. Taking a deep breath, her face contorted in concentration as she put her hands out. Slowly, half the water in the tub rose out and floated to the middle of the room until it was aligned in the doorway. With one harder look of concentration, she floated the water as fast as she could out the room._

_There was a womanly shriek of surprise before it turned to angry cuss words. Hinata heard the footsteps of the woman running as she noticed the window in the bathroom was opened and someone jumping out of it. Thinking that someone had splashed her with a water jutsu as a prank, probably her drunken husband by the look of his clothes and the laugh she heard, ran down the stairs in order to catch the culprit. _

_Grinning at a job well done, even if she was tired, Hinata ran into the bedroom and to the closet. Opening it, she saw the boxes she scouted out while they were waiting in the bathroom. All were marked according to type. Two were water and one was labeled wind. _

_Opening them, she snatched one scroll from each, silently hoping that they were good enough for Naruto-kun. Putting them in her pocket, she closed the boxes and left through the window knowing that the Henged Naruto would have lured the lady of the house away so she wouldn't be seen leaving. _

**Chapter 3**

Naruto took a couple steps backwards and studied the corpse. This was the first time that he had ever used that on a human, and he had to say it was pretty effective. Up until now, he had been practicing that technique on squirrels, birds, and stray cats.

"Naruto," Iruka called to Naruto as he sat up. He was shocked by the events of this night, shocked that Mizuki was a traitor, shocked that Naruto knew about the Kyubi, shocked that he was able to learn one jonin and one S-rank jutsu in only a few short hours, and defiantly shocked that he knew such a powerful jutsu that from the looks of things had the power to kill very efficiently.

Pulling the kunai out of his shin, he saw that Naruto had turned to look at him when he said his name. Naruto's face was impassive, and Iruka had the gut feeling that Naruto was not feeling any kind of remorse for killing the traitor.

"Come here," he told Naruto, waving him over. Naruto paused for a moment before doing so.

"Are you ok, sensei?" Naruto asked as he walked over.

Iruka smiled at him and nodded. "Yea, I'll be alright. He didn't hit anything vital." He hesitated slightly before asking the question he wanted. "Hey, Naruto, what did you do to him," he asked looking pointedly at the dead Mizuki.

"Killed him," Naruto stated calmly, too calmly as far as Iruka was concerned.

"I know that, Naruto, but what did you do? Was it a technique?"

Naruto regarded him for a second. "Ya, I found a jutsu scroll a little bit ago that some old man was about to get rid of, so I took it. The print was hard to make out, almost like someone had spilled something on it or something, so I don't know its name. I just know it's an assassination jutsu that fries the brain."

Iruka looked worried for second before asking another question. "Is this the first time you used it? The first time you killed someone."

Naruto shook his head. "This is the first time I killed another human, but I practiced it on animals I find in the forest and stuff."

Satisfied and relieved, Iruka nodded and smiled. "That's good to hear. You did an excellent job Naruto, and I just want you to know that I'm proud of you. Now close your eyes for a second."

Looking at Iruka with a hint of suspicion, Naruto did as told. He felt cloth touch his forehead and around to the back as Iruka tied it. "Alright, you can open them now."

Opening his eyes, Naruto immediately noticed Iruka didn't have his headband on anymore. Reaching up, Naruto felt the medal on his forehead instead and could not hold back a small grin.

"You did so well, that I'm sure the Hokage will have no problems making you a Genin," Iruka smiled. "Congratulations, Naruto."

&&&&&

Sarutobi sighed to himself as he watched both Naruto and Iruka leave. If it had been two years previous, Naruto would be jumping for joy at the thought of someone offering him free ramen as Iruka did after their small discussion of tonight's events. However, this Naruto just thanked Iruka before bowing to Sarutobi and promising that he would make Sarutobi proud.

Thanking the healer that had closed and healed Iruka's cuts and Naruto's surprisingly severe burnt hand, Sarutobi dismissed her so he could get back to the paperwork he needed to finish by tomorrow. With Naruto given Genin status, teams needed to be reorganized. Well, at least some. One team had been left with only two members, but with Naruto that made exactly twenty seven graduates, perfect for nine teams of three.

It didn't take too long to do the reshuffling and in the end he was happy with what he came up with. Stamping it in the Hokage's approval, he put it in the bin for his secretary to take care of for tomorrow morning. He was about to leave when someone knocked on the door.

"Yes," he called out. The door opened and an ANBU stuck his head into the office.

"Hokage-sama, Danzo-san is here asking for permission to speak with you."

Blinking a few times in genuine surprise at this late of a visit, he nodded his approval. A moment later the mummy looking man walked in with his head held high, even if he walked with a slight limp.

"Danzo, what is it I can do for you in this late of an hour?" Sarutobi asked as he leaned on the desk.

"Hokage-sama, I have heard the most interesting rumors," Danzo started. "I would just like to know if they are true and what you have done about it."

Sighing, Sarutobi looked at his old rival warily. "You speak of tonight?" Danzo nodded. "If you are referring to Naruto, yes he did take the forbidden scroll. However, he was tricked into doing so by Mizuki, who had been planning on killing Naruto and taking the scroll himself."

Danzo did not give way to how he felt about that, and instead asked a question. "And what of Mizuki? I just passed by Iruka-san and the boy in the street. Both seemed fine."

Knowing that Danzo already knew and just wanted to confirm what he was told, Sarutobi felt there was no need to lie. "Iruka found Naruto before Mizuki could cause Naruto any lasting harm and both returned the scroll to me after neutralizing Mizuki."

Danzo actually smirked at that. "I was told that the boy was the one that 'neutralized' the traitor. Even going as far as killing him. Is this not so?"

Sarutobi hesitated before nodding. "Yes. And I can assure you that he had every right to do what he did and will not be punished for it in any way," Sarutobi finished forcefully, knowing Danzo would get the point.

To his wary surprise, Danzo actually grinned. "Good," he said in approval. "I am glad that the boy is stronger than what I have heard. We both know that there are dark times ahead. We will need him to be strong in order for Konoha to stay at the top of the ninja world. Goodnight, Hokage-sama."

Watching as Danzo walked out the door, Sarutobi could not help but feel that he had missed something.

&&&&&

The weekend following the incident with Mizuki was one of the more pleasant ones for Naruto. He felt that he had gotten much accomplished. He had worked on his Kage Bunshin first to try out the information share he apparently got when a clone dispels according to the forbidden scroll. It did not work when he fought Mizuki, but he found out that he had to actually intend it to when he made the clones for them to do it. He also found out that more than five an hour gave him a migraine.

It was the same for the exploding clone as well, only worse. Only difference is he could not help but get feedback, as he experienced after succeeding the first time in making an exploding clone right before the fight with Mizuki. And it hurt a lot more too. He could only imagine exploding more than one clone and getting the feedback from them at the same time, because not only does the memory make him feel like he's being ripped apart, but the clone has to literally commit suicide. It was thanks to Yin that when the memory hit he was able to detach himself from actually being traumatized the first time he had created an exploding clone successfully.

It was still a no go with the seven wolves technique. He could now produce a semblance of one wolf and stop it from draining all of his chakra with Hinata's help, but that was it. She told him that it was not that he would never be able to perform the jutsu, it's just that right now his body could not handle such a sudden drain of chakra all at once, and he also did not have enough chakra control. Naruto was not real worried about that for now, once he had a sensei he would learn more chakra control exercises.

Hinata was also able to learn one more technique, the _**Suiton: Mizurappa no Jutsu**_ (Violent Water Wave). She had been working on it for the last month, but apparently meeting her new sensei and team in a couple days gave her motivation to master it. She wanted to impress them, and she had enlisted his help in working on hitting a moving target.

Naruto had bought her dinner (ramen) that day to celebrate becoming Genin and mastering her sixth jutsu. During the dinner she expressed her fear for if they do not get on the same team.

"Don't worry, Hinata," he had told her. "Even if we're not on the same team, we'll only be genin. We can still train together. And if you ever need help with anything, you know I'll help you. You're my…friend. The only one I've ever had."

Hinata had smiled brighter than he had ever seen. He said it and meant it, despite his feelings for her being dulled. Most people he was impassive to, or didn't really care about beyond the point of them being Konoha citizens. But there were a couple who he actually cared about that was closer to normal, she and the Hokage being the primary two.

Still, when Hinata smiled like that at him and he felt his heart actually beat faster, and when she jumped out of her seat and hugged his and his stomach felt weird, he was confused. And when she got off him, her face red as she thanked him for dinner and ran away home, he could not help but think to himself, 'What the hell was that?'

Nee-chan answered him with a laugh.

Midmorning the next day he was the second person to arrive at the ninja academy. The only one that had beaten him here was Aburame Shino, who seemed to have an excessive impulse to turn up forty five minutes early. But then again, Naruto had no room to talk about excessive impulses…

As people started filling in the room he found himself once again spinning his kunai on his finger as he looked the window. Each time he heard a different person's name his mind went on over drive trying to figure out their strengths and weaknesses, just so he could be ready for when he received a team. Hinata came in and gave a shy hello with her head down as she sat next to him. Frowning at the greeting, he pocked her in the head like he always did when they first started talking.

"Ow," she said with a pout as she rubbed her head, her headband around her neck.

"Head up, remember," he told her. "You cower to no one, Hinata."

She looked at him before giving a small smile. "Hai," she said. "Because I am a princess of the strongest clan in Konoha."

Smirking slightly because she remembered what he used to tell her, he nodded. "Damn right."

"What are you doing here, dobe?" a voice spoke up next to him. Turning from Hinata, he saw the stuck up Uchiha taking a seat next to him.

"Waiting for Iruka-sensei to tell us our teams, obviously," he answered, his kunai still spinning on his finger.

"But you didn't pass," he stated. "You couldn't even perform a Bunshin from what the other teachers say."

"You're right, I can't do a Bunshin no Jutsu," Naruto stated, already turning back to Hinata to continue their conversation.

As he continued to talk to Hinata, two girls came running in.

"Ha, I win Forehead! I get to sit with Sasuke-kun!"

"That's bull Ino-pig. I clearly beat you by at least a foot, so I get to sit with Sasuke-kun."

Before Ino could make a comeback, an annoyed Shikamaru spoke up. "There is no seat next to Sasuke, so can you two stop screaming? It's way too troublesome when I'm trying to sleep."

Ino instantly spun on him and started to berate her childhood friend as Sakura's head swiveled around the room to find her Sasuke-kun. She immediately noticed who was sitting next to him and stomped over.

Naruto was just about to tell Hinata that he would shave her father bold if that would help her spar in front of him when another voice interrupted his conversation.

"Alright, Naruto no Baka," Sakura said loudly, "Get your annoying butt up so I can sit next to Sasuke-kun."

Naruto, who was usually fully immune to Sakura's now rare tirades against him, found that he was oddly aggravated. As it was, he stopped spinning his kunai. "Sakura, for some reason I'm not myself today, so I would appreciate it if you leave me alone."

Sakura did a double take as she remembered that this was not the same Naruto that used to beg her for dates and let her do whatever she wanted to him. But it did not matter at the moment; this was the last day of the academy and she might not be on the same team as her Sasuke-kun. She needed to sit next to him so that she could leave a lasting impression.

"Look, Naruto," she said in a snippy tone. "I understand that you want to sit next to the best in the class and ask him for pointers or something. But I need to sit there, so move."

Naruto regarded her for a second as he wondered why she thought she could all of a sudden order him around. "No," he said turning back to Hinata.

Gritting her teeth, Sakura snarled, "Naruto you idiot, get up now before I make you. This is your last chance!"

For the first time in a long time Naruto found himself seething. His grip tightened on his kunai and he actually gritted his teeth. He shouldn't be getting this angry or annoyed, so what the hell was going on. Did Yin decide not to wear his mask for some reason?

"Fine! Have it your way," she practically screamed before cocking back and swinging for his head. However, before it got half way, a small hand gripped her wrist in a painful hold. She looked from the fist holding her as it slowly tightened to the eyes and face of the normally quiet and soft Hinata.

With her Byakugan active, unconsciously activating due to her anger, she looked into the now fearful eyes of Naruto's old crush. "He told you to leave him alone, Sakura-san. I suggest that you do that, and if you raise your hand to hit him again," she continued as she focused enough chakra in her hand to tighten the grip even more painfully. "You will not be able to use this arm ever again."

Letting go of her wrist, Hinata sat back down and noticed the whole class looking at her. Blushing at all the attention and not used to it, she dipped her head down and was about to begin pocking her index fingers when a hand suddenly took one of hers. Shocked, she looked up to see Naruto looking at her as he gave her a crooked smile of appreciation. Then she felt him squeeze her hand and look back to the front, his face once again impassive, before she felt him let go.

Turning her attention to the front of the room where everyone else had as Iruka-sensei just walked in, she could not stop the gleaming smile that appeared on her face. Even Iruka-sensei did a double take when he looked around the room and saw her.

Clearing his throat, Iruka began speaking. "Alright guys, I just want to say how proud of you I am. From this day forward you will be working with a team in a three man cell, and although at first you will have a sensei to help you, that will not always be the case. Remember everything that you have learned here, but do not get complacent. Continue to learn and get stronger. The better a ninja you are the better you will be able to help your team and the better you will be able to protect Konoha from her enemies.

"With that in mind I will announce the teams. I don't want to hear any complaints about the selection, especially since it was the Hokage himself who picked them. So without further a due, let's get started…"

Naruto paid attention to Iruka as he named the teams. Teams 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 were all average students, none of them coming from any ninja clans or any special skill. Team 2 were better as they had a genin that graduated a year early as well as a member from the Akimichi family, most likely Choji's cousin. He finally heard his name when team 7 was called.

"Team 7 will consist of Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke…" Naruto blinked a few times to get over the shock of being on Sakura's team. 'Oh, nee-chan, if she's anywhere like she is today over the next couple weeks I think I may kill her.'

"_**Then help her Naruto-kun**_," his Nee-chan spoke up helpfully. "_**You cannot have a weak link on your team**_."

"Help…I'll try nee-chan."

"Team 8 will be Hyuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba…"

Sakura could not believe her luck. She was with Sasuke-kun! Granted, she would have to deal with that idiot Naruto, who should not have even been here as he did not even pass the test. And if he got in her way, his head would start flying.

Sasuke was thinking the total opposite. The gods must really hate him. The dead last that could not even do a Bunshin and one of the leaders of his fan club? Damn…

"Team 10 will be Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji. Now that everyone knows who their team is, why don't you take a half hour lunch break? Once you come back, your senseis will come by to pick you up. Dismissed."

As soon as Iruka stopped speaking, the whole room was filled with activity as everyone went to find their teammates and leave together to get lunch. Well almost everyone. Sasuke had immediately jumped out the window, and Sakura ran out the door to follow him. Naruto stayed where he was with Hinata sitting beside him looking crestfallen.

"Hey," he said to her. "Cheer up. You said you want to impress your teammates and sensei. You can't do that looking like that." He stood up and was about to leave when Hinata stopped him.

"Naruto-kun, since your teammates left, do you want to have lunch with mine?" she asked.

Naruto looked over to where Shino and Kiba were waiting, Kiba for some reason glowering at him, and shook his head. "No," he answered. "I have to run home really quick to get something. Besides, it's only 11:30 or so. You know I can't eat yet."

Hinata nodded and Naruto jumped out the window to head home.

Naruto made it back with about three minutes to spare before they were due. Everyone was seated with their teammates and Naruto noticed his team had left a spot for him next to Sakura. Sitting down, he noticed Sasuke give him an annoyed glare. Naruto figured it was for leaving him alone to deal with Sakura.

Speaking of the cherry blossom, "Where have you been? You were almost late!"

Naruto glanced at Sakura before turning his attention to the red eyed woman that came through the door. "Team 8, come with me please," the woman asked before leaving again. Hinata gave a small wave goodbye as she walked by some more of the Jonin sensei walking in the classroom.

The room emptied pretty quickly for the most part, and after thirty minutes it was only team 7 and 10. Naruto amused himself by playing and losing to Shikamaru in Shogi, and got his butt kicked the second game as well. They were a little into the second game when their sensei finally came by and took team 10.

They waited for about two hours all together, and by that time even the broody Uchiha was beginning to look impatient. Sakura had stopped trying to make conversation with Sasuke and was pacing back and forth between desks, occasionally picking up trash she finds along the way. Naruto spun a kunai on his left index finger as he played yo-yo with five shuriken with the help of chakra strings.

When the door creaked open, all three looked to the door to see a grey headed cyclops walk through the door. He took one look at the glaring Uchiha, the furious but trying to hold it in Sakura, and the impassive but curious Naruto, and stated, "Hm, my first impression of you all….I don't like you. Meet me on the roof in five minutes." With that he left.

When they got over their shock and got to the roof, they found their new sensei leaning on the railing. "Alright, now that you have finally decided to get up here, why don't we start with introductions?" he said.

Naruto was not sure if this casual behavior was normal or if his sensei was playing some type of game, but he made sure to keep himself guarded. Never judge a book by its cover.

"Why don't you go first, sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Hm, I guess if you guys are too nervous I'll go," he answered. Naruto raised an eyebrow, Sakura's eyebrow started ticking, and Sasuke grunted and glared harder. "Let's see, my name Hatake Kakashi, I have many likes and dislikes, my hobbies are doing the things that I like, and my dreams are too boring for any of you to be interested in. Ok, now you can go lucky duckling," he finished pointing at Sasuke.

Sasuke's glare seemed to intensify before speaking up. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't have many likes and have many dislikes. My dream is more of an ambition…to revive my clan and to kill a certain man."

It was exactly as Kakashi had been expecting and understandable. He turned to the other boy in the group who was looking curiously at the Uchiha. "Ok, that nice. Blondie, you go next."

Naruto looked at him for a second before introducing himself. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like training, those that I consider precious, and ramen. I dislike those that try to hurt what is precious to me and try to take that away. My dreams, or ambitions, are to become Hokage and burn Iwagakure no Sato to the ground."

Kakashi's one visible eye opened wide at the last part, and both Sasuke and Sakura stared at Naruto stunned. He looked back at each of them and tilted his head, silently asking what the problem was. Shaking out of his initial shock, Kakashi turned to the last member. "Ok, that sounds like a fun ordeal. Pinky, it's your turn."

Sakura looked at her sensei, then at the two boys beside her and could not help but feel inadequate compared to their goals. "Um, well, my name is Haruno Sakura. I like," she glanced over at Sasuke for a moment. "Um, I mean the person that I like is…My hobbies include…" she looked at Sasuke and…did she just squeal and giggle, Kakashi asked himself. He was about to intervene when he finally noticed the gathering storm that was Naruto.

"Damn it," Naruto snarled in frustration before grabbing Sakura by the shoulders and lifting her up.

"Naruto, what do you think your…"

Smack!

Sasuke stood up and stared at Naruto in disbelief. Kakashi was in a similar state.

"Look at me Sakura!" Naruto yelled at the girl. He just could not take it anymore, seeing the girl act like a stupid ass fan girl for four years. She had once been his friend, even if it was for only a week and then her mom told her to stay away from him. And he had once had a crush on her, damn it. This could not be the person who he followed around the playground like a lost puppy once upon a time.

Sakura looked back at him with wide eyes. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you think this is a joke?" he yelled.

"No," Sakura answered him in a weak voice.

"Then why the hell are you acting like it is? You're a ninja, a Kunoichi of the leaf. Where is your pride? Or do you think that now you've got through the academy it will be all fun and games?"

"No," her voice was a little stronger.

"Really? Then did you become a ninja to impress your precious Sasuke-kun and now that you made it you just want to spread your legs and make a whole bunch of broody babies?"

"No!" she almost yelled.

"Then what the fuck Sakura, stop acting like that is all there is to you. It is starting to drive me nuts how low you've gotten since we first met. And Sasuke and I need someone who can help us accomplish our dreams! You can't do that with the way you are. Do you want to get me or Sasuke killed?"

"NO," she screamed and wrenched herself out of his arms.

Suddenly the anger that seemed to be tangible and visible disappeared, and Naruto stared into the green eyes of the girl before him impassively. "Good," he said, not a hint of anger in his voice. If anything, it seemed satisfied. "Now why don't you try again Sakura, and tell us about yourself?"

Tears still leaking down her face, she almost winced away when Naruto reached out and wiped some of them off her cheek. "No more crying," he said, his hand cupping her red cheek. "I'm sorry that I needed to hurt you for you to understand." With that he let go.

Composing herself as best she could, and secretly wondering how Naruto can just switch emotional gears like that so easily, she took a deep breath before reintroducing herself. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like to read books and do trivia games. I dislike a couple things, especially my forehead and any food that's spicy. My dream and ambition is to one day become a great sensei, maybe a teacher at the academy."

Looking around at the others, almost expecting them to make fun of her, she actually found curious gazes, well except Naruto. She could not tell what he was thinking.

Rubbing the back of his neck and not sure how he should feel about the events that just transpired, Kakashi decided to call it a day. "Now that we know so much about each other, its time I tell you what I have planned for tomorrow. The first thing we need to do is survival training. I know you little Genin have covered this at the academy, but what we'll be doing is slightly different."

"How is that?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, you guys aren't gonna like this but…the survival training tomorrow is actually a test that all 27 graduates have to take."

All three of them were surprised. "But, sensei," Sakura interrupted. "We already passed the Genin test, why do we have to do another one?"

"Hm…Oh that. That was just a test to see who had the potential to be Genin and full fledge ninja of the leaf. In order for you little ones to truly become Genin is to pass this test, and this survival test has a 66% failure rate."

Looking at the three one final time he turned and climbed up the railing. "Meet at training ground seven tomorrow at seven. Bring all your shinobi gear, and make sure you don't eat. You might throw up." With that, Kakashi left.

The rest of team 7 looked at the spot Kakashi had jumped down from before turning to each other. "I think we should go over what our skills are, it might help us tomorrow," Naruto told both of them.

"No thanks, dobe," Sasuke said before walking to the stairs. "A dead last like you would just stand in my way."

When he left, Sakura felt very uncomfortable and thought it might be best to get away from Naruto. She needed to think about everything that was said up here. She turned to leave but Naruto's voice stopped her before the doors.

"Besides academy taught jutsu, what other skill do you have?" he asked her. Gritting her teeth, she turned to face him. By the look on his face she could not tell if he was making fun of her or not.

"No," she answered.

Nodding as though that was the answer he expected, he took two scrolls out of his pocket and tossed them to her. Looking up from them questioningly he explained.

"One is a scroll with two low level Genjutsu. They're not much, but I didn't really go looking for Genjutsu scrolls when I found out I suck at them. The other one are about storage seals. I figured it might come in handy to learn how to make your own storage scrolls, and you might too."

Looking at him in astonishment, she nodded and said thank you before leaving.

"How did I do, Nee-chan?"

Smirking inside her cage, Kyubi answered. "_**You did very well, Naruto-kun**_."

&&&&&

Well, there's snow everywhere here, so I can't go outside. Instead, I wrote this chapter in six hours and three minutes. Not too shabby, but don't expect all updates this fast, I was literally bored out my mind and needed something to pass the time.

Ja ne!


	4. Chapter 4: Intent to kill

: If you notice it, it's not mine. And thanks for the reviews )

**Naruto: Darker Than Black**

_Naruto sat on top of the Hokage monument as he watched the sun going down in the horizon. It was a beautiful sight and he always loved watching it. Maybe that was why he felt the impulse to come up here and draw a sun in the dirt. _

_He drew a large circle, and then began drawing twenty one lines coming out of it, eleven long lines with ten shorter ones in between them. As he continued to slowly draw the lines, he heard the soft footsteps of what he came to recognize in the last year as Hinata's coming from behind._

"_What are you doing, Naruto-kun?" she asked as she sat next to him. _

_Not looking away from his drawing, he answered her. "Performing one of my obeisance."_

_Hinata seemed confused as she had never seen him do this before. "But I thought your obeisance was to eat seven cups of ramen three times a day and to wear orange?" _

_Naruto paused before answering. "It is, although those impulses have lessened since I got them. This is a new one. Since Yin can now use dirt to travel, that counts as a new power. And for me to be able to use it, I need to do this."_

_Hinata nodded even though she still did not fully understand how his Kekkei genkai worked. "So what do you have to do now?"_

"_Draw the sun every time it's about to go down," he answered as he finished his dirt drawn sun. He had told her Yin was a bloodline limit. It was more reasonable to explain Yin to her that way instead of telling her about his Nee-chan. "But this isn't too bad of price to pay for power. It could be a lot worse."_

"_You have never told me what will happen if you do not perform your obeisance, Naruto-kun," she stated hoping that he would get the hint and tell her even if she feared the answer._

_Naruto looked at her and thought about the pros and cons of being honest with her. In the end he knew that if he did not tell her, she would continue to ask. Looking her in the eyes, he told her._

"_The obeisance can be delayed for a short time depending on the situation, such as combat or I am unconscious. If I am conscious and do not do my payments, which so far seems impossible, my chakra will rush to my brain and melt it like butter." _

**--Chapter 4—**

Arriving at the training ground, Naruto saw that he was not the first one to arrive. Sasuke sat against one of three stomps in the middle of a clearing and Sakura was sitting on top of another one. Naruto noticed that she looked really tired, as though she did not get that much sleep the following night. He approved of this, even though it may be slightly problematic when they do the test. At least this way he knew that what he told her yesterday had sunk in and she thought about it.

Deciding that both of them were not going to be real receptive of him at the moment, Sasuke would just tell him he did not want anything to do with him and Sakura would be uncomfortable, he walked over to a nearby stream that he knew cut off from the river that ran through Konoha. He could practice that water control exercise that Hinata had mastered over a year ago but he was still struggling with.

Taking off his sandals he sat down and put his bare feet in the water. Almost immediately a transparent Yin appeared. She was naked for some reason, and she nor his Nee-chan could explain why the clothes did not appear, although they speculated that they might begin to as Yin grew stronger. "Yin," he nodded to her in greeting. "You want to get out for a little, huh?"

"Hai," Yin replied softly before looking behind him. "The girl is coming over."

Turning his head, he saw that Sakura had indeed started walking over, her posture showing how uncertain she was. Upon seeing him watching her, she put her head down but continued none the less.

"Hi, Naruto," she greeted him as she sat down.

"Sakura," he greeted her. "You don't look like you had much sleep last night. Why was that?"

Looking around, she took off her own sandals and put her feet in the water. She hesitated for a moment, her eyes still looking in the stream, before she answered. "I thought about what you said yesterday, and I realized you were right."

Naruto took out a kunai and began to spin it on his finger as he listened. Sakura watched him in the reflection of the water. Yin, Naruto noticed, had moved herself so that she was looking right into Sakura's face.

"What was I right about Sakura?" he asked her, wanting her to say it out loud.

Sakura glanced at him for a moment before looking back to the water. "I have been acting very embarrassingly. I didn't even notice what it must have looked like to other people, chasing Sasuke-kun around like that, constantly arguing with Ino, and just acting like I wasn't taking becoming a ninja seriously."

She paused here. "And I didn't even notice how badly I treated everybody else. I broke my friendship up with Ino, I always hit you and treated you mean, I brushed off any boys who tried to strike a friendship with me, and I treated every girl in the class like a rival, even those who did not seem interested in Sasuke-kun.

"And I must look like an idiot to him. If you, the boy who had a crush on me (slightly blushes) thought I was acting stupid, I can't imagine what he must have thought."

Naruto considered her for a second before responding. "You're right. You were acting illogical and irrationally, and Sasuke most likely thinks you're just like every other dumb girl who fawned over him for no reason other than his clan name."

"That's not the reason I like him," Sakura interrupted him. "Well, it's one of the reasons, but that's not all."

"Really?" Naruto asked slowly drawing the word out. "Regardless, I don't care about your reasons for liking Sasuke. I just care about what you are going to do from this point on. How are you going to act, how are you going to be as a teammate, and whether or not I can trust you."

Sakura looked saddened by that. "You don't trust me?"

Looking her dead in the eye, Naruto said, "No. I haven't trusted you since I was ten and realized what kind of unreasonable person you are. It was too dangerous to be around you. Besides, I lost any feelings for you around that time as well."

Smiling sadly, Sakura spoke. "You've changed Naruto. If I didn't have a feeling in my gut that's telling me you are just being as truthful as you can, I would think you were trying to hurt my feelings."

"Sometimes people have to have their outlook crushed in order for them to see reality," Naruto answered as he watched Yin raise her hand toward Sakura's face. "Being truthful does that. I needed for you to see that the path you were taking would either get you killed, raped, or one of your teammates killed. It had nothing to do with hurting your feelings."

Sakura frowned at the word rape but nodded in understanding. "I understand," she said just as Yin's hand touched her lips. Jerking a little and causing Yin to back away, Sakura put her hand to her lips and looked around. Taking her hand away, she looked to make sure there was nothing on it. She repeated the process a couple times before once again noticing Naruto looking at her with curiosity.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

Frowning, Sakura nodded and put down her hand. "Yea. It just felt like something was brushing against my lips. Might have been a bug or something," she said not looking totally convinced. Naruto glanced to the bank of the water and saw that Yin was now trying to touch the grass.

"Anyway," Sakura got up and began to put her sandals back on. "I'm going to change and I'm going to get stronger too. I realized last night that you weren't the same idiot as before and remembered the graduation test, even if I was hardly paying attention. So I know you're stronger then what I gave you credit for. But I'm also stronger then you realize, and I do take my ninja career seriously. And during this survival test, I'm going to prove it." With that she turned back around to head back to her original seat.

Satisfied with Sakura's decision and wondering if she could truly keep her promise and prove him wrong about taking her career choice seriously, Naruto turned to look at Yin. "What was that?" he asked her. "Did you really touch her?"

"Hai," she answered in that soft voice of hers. "I can touch, but I cannot put much pressure into it. But I will be able to soon, Naruto," she finished almost shyly, which Naruto completely missed. Inside his head, Kyubi gave a small frown.

Giving Yin a small grin, Naruto nodded before putting his kunai down and started the water control exercise.

&&&&&

Kakashi arrived about four hours late to a very pissed off Sakura and a very annoyed Sasuke. Naruto, he saw, was over by the river doing something that looked surprisingly like the water pull chakra control exercise.

This made Kakashi frown somewhat. Although not unheard of, finding out and manipulating a ninja's second chakra element does not usually occur until a ninja is either a chunin or a little older. But if the rumors and the Hokage were to believe, Naruto was already able to use an element. He had used a lightening based attack to finish off Mizuki. Could Naruto already know his second element? From what Kakashi was witnessing, that seemed to be the case.

This was more proof that the academy reports were either completely wrong or fairly close to it.

"You're late!" Sakura's scream brought him out of his musings. Naruto heard the scream and turned around. Upon seeing Kakashi finally here, Naruto got up, put his sandals on and walked over.

"Um, sorry about that," Kakashi said not sounding sorry at all. "There was this old lady that needed help carrying groceries, so I had to uphold my ninja duties and help her."

All three looked at him with varying degrees of disbelief before Sakura decided to comment what they were all thinking. "LAIR!" she yelled.

Ignoring her, Kakashi pulled an alarm clock out of his pocket and set it on one of the stomps with a bag he had carried with him. "This alarm clock is set for noon, about an hour from now. Your job," Kakashi said while holding up two bells, "is to get these two bells away from me before the alarm clock rings. Anyone who doesn't get one gets tied to a stomp while I eat their lunch right in front of them."

As soon as he said this, all three knew this was the true reason why they were told not to eat breakfast, but it was only Sasuke's stomach that grumbled. Kakashi noticed immediately how the Uchiha glared at the other two, Sakura looking sheepish and apologetic, Naruto raising an eyebrow at the boy as though to say 'I told you so.'

"So, I take it you two didn't follow my advice and ate anyway," he accused them.

Sakura glared at him. "Naruto offered me a couple apples while we were waiting and he ate some ramen," she said. "If you were on time we would have never felt the need to not listen to you."

Glancing at Naruto, who looked just as apologetic as Sakura sounded, he decided to let it go. "Hm…I guess I can let it slide. It doesn't matter anyway, seeing as the person that does not get a bell not only gets tied to a stomp, but fails and gets thrown back into the academy."

Not waiting for any arguments that looked about to happen, Kakashi continued. "Now, the only way for you little guys to get the bells is if you come at me with the intent to kill," he said tying the bells to his waist. "That means you can use any skills that you have. Anything short of that and you will surely fail.

"We'll start when I say begin. Are there any questions? Good," he said not waiting for any questions. "Ready…begin!"

As soon as he said it Naruto jumped backwards while making a hand seal and Sakura followed Sasuke to the surrounding trees for a hiding spot. Kakashi didn't see this though, even if he felt their presence leave, due to the white smoke that covered their escape. When the smoke cleared, two Naruto's stood in front of him with a third one right behind them.

"You know, your other two teammates had the right idea of hiding themselves," Kakashi said as the Naruto's all pulled out a kunai.

"Point?" the one in the back asked. Before Kakashi could respond, all three ran forward, two trying to flank him with the last one coming at him dead on. Putting a hand in his pouch, Kakashi pulled out his favorite book in the world.

The Narutos, who hesitated for only a moment when he did this, all charged in faster than they did at first.

'According to Mizuki's academy report on him, Naruto is faster than average but lacks form in Taijutsu,' Kakashi thought. 'I see that was accurate.'

Kakashi blocked the left clones strike before spinning quickly to get around to the clone's back and kicking it. It stumbled right into the thrusting blade of the other clone and disappeared in a little white smoke. The one that had come from the middle immediately stopped and threw his kunai at Kakashi, who ducked underneath it and surged forward.

Faster than Kakashi had seen so far, the clone that he made stab the other pushed what Kakashi assumed was the real one out the way and took a powerful knee to the stomach that knocked it into the air. Momentarily surprised that the clone could take such a hit and not dispel, he almost missed the kunai that flew into the clone's outstretched hand.

'An exploding note,' Kakashi thought right before jumping backwards to avoid the explosion.

Turning to face the lone Naruto, he decided to speak up about the dangers of using such a dangerous weapon so close to his precious.

"Now Naruto-kun, you ought to be more careful with throwing explosive notes everywhere. Look," he said holding up his Icha Icha book. "You could have severely damaged it."

Not liking being taken so lightly, Naruto ran forward once again. Kakashi sighed. Perhaps he had expected too much after hearing what he was told.

&&&&&

Crouching under a bush not too far away, Sakura watched in awe as Naruto took on their sensei. Just as Kakashi spoke of right before the fight started, she thought Naruto made the mistake of not hiding first as well. But even so, she could not help but feel a bit of wonder. Naruto was much faster than she had thought. Seeing as she never once sparred with him, this was to be expected.

And she also had no idea what kind of clones he was using. From the way they moved, affected the ground they ran on, and the way Kakashi could hit them, they must be solid. However, she had never heard or read of a solid clone before. And now after blowing up his own clone in an attempt to hurt Kakashi, Naruto was once again charging forward.

Naruto first went in with a punch but it was blocked by Kakashi's book free hand. Wasting no time, Naruto swung his leg upward to try to hit Kakashi in the chin, but Kakashi just leaned back and it missed. With the momentum Naruto spun in the air and tried a spinning kick aimed for Kakashi's stomach.

However, Kakashi seemed to disappear for a moment before reappearing right behind Naruto. Sakura noticed that while Kakashi squatted down, his hands were over his book in the form of the tiger seal, which usually are used for fire jutsu according to the books.

'He can't really be about to hit Naruto in the back with a fire jutsu is he?' Sakura thought in near panic.

"You know a good shinobi should never leave his back open, right?" Sakura heard Kakashi speak in a voice that sounded disappointed. "_**Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ōugi: Sennen Goroshi**_," Kakashi yelled as he surged his index fingers forward.

To Sakura's surprise, Naruto only gritted his teeth in pain but otherwise did not move before he spoke up. "I never let you behind me."

Kakashi's visible eye widened in surprise before Naruto exploded. She could not believe what she just saw. Their sensei just killed Naruto. As the ground shook and Kakashi jumped away from the explosion fast enough not to get hurt badly, she could not help but to scream. "NARUTO!"

&&&&&

Kakashi heard the scream and would have gone over to berate the stupid girl for giving away her position, but right now his mind was on what lay in his burnt finger tips. It was the remains of his book, Icha Icha Paradise, a part of it still on fire. A whistling in the air behind him brought him back to reality.

A kunai with a metal wire tied in the loop struck and buried itself right below Kakashi's shoulder blade and Naruto jumped down from the tree holding the other end of the wire. He could not help but feel proud of his trap, it had worked perfectly, and now he had Kakashi, a _Jonin_ level ninja, in the perfect position to immobilize, paralyze, or even kill if he wanted.

"Give me the bells, Kakashi-sensei," he said. Out the corner of his eye he could see Sakura staring at him as though he were a ghost. He supposed he could have told her about his abilities while she watched him do the water control exercise and eat the two apples he had given her, but it had slipped his mind.

"Give me the bells or I'll kill you, sensei," he spoke up again when he did not receive an answer to his first demand. He did not mean it. He would not really kill his sensei when he did not have to. The problems that would cause him far outweighed the gains.

He began to suspect that something was off when once again Kakashi did not say anything. Deciding that he would just immobilize his sensei just long enough to get the bells, he concentrated his chakra and sent a current of electricity down his arm and into the wire. The electricity surged forward until it reached the kunai and it spread throughout Kakashi's body.

However, instead of Kakashi thrashing to the ground, there was a poof of white smoke and in Kakashi's place was a log. There was a sound of someone walking out from behind a tree behind him and he turned his head.

"You know," Kakashi started speaking as he took off his burnt gloves and let them fall to the ground. "Despite you destroying my book, I think I'm beginning to like you!" he finished with his eye closed up in a U shape and a shift of his mask. Naruto figured he was smiling.

While he was trying to form a new plan in his head, shuriken and kunai flew from out of the trees and hit Kakashi in the side. But Naruto knew even before Kakashi went up in white smoke and a log took his place that Kakashi got away.

Glancing to the side, he saw Sakura had headed back into the woods. From how things were going so far, he now knew he was way out of his league. Kakashi was not even taking them seriously and was barely even hurt after Naruto used one of his best techniques on him. No, he would need help from someone. He knew that Sasuke would just brush him off, but perhaps Sakura would want to…

Help. Of course! Naruto would have smacked himself if he knew it would accomplish anything for not seeing it from the beginning. They were supposed to get both bells from a _Jonin_, not some Genin or Chunin. How was a lone Genin supposed to do that? They couldn't. They were supposed to get help, from one or both of the other Genin.

And if they got the bells, then wait? Perhaps the Jonin sensei would pick the two that gave the best performance out of all three of them if all three worked together. If it was just two worked together, then they would get to stay Genin under their sensei and be a team…

Team.

'Oh, I'm an idiot. Iruka sensei would be so disappointed in me if he knew I didn't remember his hint,' Naruto thought to himself as he ran to the spot he had seen Sakura. '_From this day forward you will be working with a team in a three man cell, and although at first you will have a sensei to help you, that will not always be the case…_ he had said, and now Kakashi-sensei used a divide and conquer tactic to tear our eyes away from the truth.'

He found Sakura in a little clearing looking a little lost. "No…No way. Sasuke-kun," he heard her say as she stared in horror at…nothing. Glancing around and not seeing where his sensei was, he jumped behind Sakura and put his hand on her back.

"Kai," he said while pushing some of his chakra into Sakura just as the academy books said to do in order to get someone out of a Genjutsu.

Kakashi watched from his perch on a tree as Naruto released Sakura from his genjutsu. He was a little disappointed in the girl, seeing as she was apparently the smartest Kunoichi that had graduated. Leaving them as Naruto pulled a confused Sakura back into the cover of trees, Kakashi left to find the third member. If he had been impressed with the village outcast, he hoped this encounter would be just as good.

&&&&&

Sasuke could not remember ever being as pissed as he was right now. He could not believe what he had just witnessed. He thought of what he saw the dobe do as he finished setting up his trap. The dobe's Taijutsu form sucked, just like it always had, even with his increase in speed. That was one thing that pissed him off though. Since when had the dobe become as fast as him?

Sasuke was not as pissed off at Naruto for that as he was at himself. If the dead last had caught up to him, he must not have been training hard enough. But that would change, once he got one of the bells, he would pass this stupid test. Then he would have his sensei teach him new jutsu and training methods that would get him stronger. For once he agreed with the dobe. What the dobe had told Sakura yesterday was true, he had an ambition, and with the way she acted if she was on his team she would be a distraction and hold him back. Even the dobe was taking things seriously.

And speaking of the dobe, Sasuke could not believe he was thinking it, but he hoped the ramen loving boy passed as well. The dobe had showed off three techniques,_ three_, that were not taught at the academy. A clone that was solid, a clone that actually blew up, and that electric current he had tried to use on Kakashi. If the dobe passed, he would get him to teach those techniques to him. Besides, the dobe actually seemed to get him and how he felt, more than any other of his peers.

Sakura had actually surprised him a little. She was still useless, but at least she was brave. Right when Sasuke was about to strike at Kakashi's back, Sakura had tried to help the dobe out by throwing kunai and shuriken at Kakashi. All of them had hit the target, which shocked him because of her accuracy, before Kakashi showed he had done a body switch.

Standing in a small clearing, Sasuke waited for Kakashi to appear. Sure enough, he heard someone land behind him. "Naruto didn't do too well with Taijutsu, you know," Kakashi spoke up with his hands in his pockets, surreptitiously damning Naruto for destroying his book. "And it only took one Genjutsu and poor Sakura was out for the count."

"Pfft," Sasuke responded. "Don't compare me to them. We're nothing alike."

"Really?" Kakashi asked in mock surprise. "Perhaps I'll believe that when you get a bell. I've been told that your brother got it on his first try when he took this test."

Sasuke spun around so fast he thought he almost break his spin. "What do you know? Don't talk like he was some sort of hero!" Reaching inside his pouches he threw the shuriken as fast and accurate as he could. Kakashi dodged to the right.

"You can do better…" Kakashi started before he heard a snap. Turning to his left he saw that there was a trap and a couple of short swords flying at him. He jumped over these and immediately saw one of them suddenly switch with the last Uchiha.

Sasuke swung his foot around aiming for Kakashi's head, but it was blocked. Using the other leg, he spun and tried to kick down on the top of Kakashi's head instead, but that foot was grabbed. Seeing the perfect opportunity, he reached in his pouch again and withdrew a shuriken. Throwing it, he was able to slice one of the strings and a bell fell to the ground.

But before he could make any head way to grab it, Kakashi kicked him in the stomach and he landed a couple yards away. Getting up as quickly as he could, he saw Kakashi about to reach down to pick up the bell. Flipping through the necessary hand seals as fast as he could, he noticed Kakashi's one eye widen in surprise as he called out his jutsu.

"_**Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu**_," Sasuke yelled before putting his fingers to his mouth and blowing. Out came a huge fire ball that rocketed toward Kakashi.

'Where the hell are these kids learning these jutsu,' Kakashi thought already into his own jutsu. 'Genin shouldn't have enough chakra to do what they're doing, although with Naruto it's understandable.'

Taking a deep breath and looking at the place he just burnt, Sasuke noticed that no charred remains of his sensei were there. As the fire cleared and dispersed from his lack of concentration, he tried to pinpoint where Kakashi had gone to.

"Below," he heard a muffled voice. Looking down in surprise, he was suddenly pulled down into the earth until his head was the only thing above ground.

Wiping his hands on his pants, Kakashi stood in front Sasuke's head. "_**Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu**_," Kakashi said as he turned to get the half melted bell. As he walked he spoke to the boy behind him. "You were right I see. You are way _ahead_ of the others. Ahahaha." He stopped laughing when a kunai came from his left. Dipping his head to the side to avoid it (These kids are really trying to kill me) Kakashi looked in that direction to see three Naruto's charging at him.

'This is getting old,' he thought getting ready to meet the onslaught. However, they suddenly changed positions to where they were in a straight line. Blocking the punch of one, he wasted no time with kicking it hard into a tree where it dispersed. The second one jumped to kick Kakashi's head as the third one aimed a swinging kick at his legs. Grabbing the leg of the one he noticed that it lacked the strength they had earlier. Focusing chakra into his legs, he felt the clone kick his leg, but it too lack its normal flare.

Throwing the clone he had grabbed away and kicking the other in the stomach, he tried to figure out what the blond was playing at now.

His answer came in a voice behind him. "_**Futon: Renkuudan**_," he heard Naruto's voice speak. Spinning, he saw a clone running over to Sasuke, presumably to help him out of the ground, and the real Naruto sucking in a breath then blowing it out. The jutsu moved faster than even Sasuke's great fireball, though thankfully only a quarter of its size, and Kakashi was forced to dodge quickly to the left.

He saw the air projectile hit a tree out the corner of his eye. The tree literally got snapped in half and fell to the side. He thanked himself that he was fast enough to get out the way when he saw something pink attacking him from the side. Reacting on instinct, he swung his hand around too fast for her to see let alone dodge, but to his shock the moment he hit her face she dispersed into hundreds of sakura petals. Forming a one hand seal as the petals swirled around him, he yelled, "Kai."

The petals disappeared and he looked down just in time to see the real Sakura pulling away from him and noticed the bell was gone from his waist. Moving as fast as he could, he reached out to grab her hair. Instead of pink, however, he was fisting blond. With a hard pull, just because he was a little ticked that Naruto had really tried to kill him so many times, the clone dispersed.

Looking over at where his three potential students were, he saw an exhausted Sakura leaning heavily on Naruto and a Naruto clone dispersing in smoke after helping Sasuke out of the hole. Glancing to where he was headed before being attacked by Naruto, his suspicion was confirmed when he saw the half melted bell gone.

"Hm…I seem to have misplaced my bells, would you two happen to know where they are?" Kakashi asked. As Sakura held up the half melted one and Naruto the other, he could not help but feel optimistic. They had all done so well, and at the end they had even worked together. Well two of them did, the other was being dug out of a hole.

"Well, seeing as the lucky duckling isn't so lucky today," Kakashi said as a glaring Sasuke just huffed. "He'll have to be tied to the stomp as I eat in front of him."

Naruto and Sakura glanced at each other before Sakura spoke up. "What are you talking about, sensei?"

Kakashi tilted his head in confusion at her question. Hadn't she been paying attention before the test started?

"Yea, sensei," Naruto interrupted Kakashi before he could ask. "I'm pretty sure you said whoever didn't have a bell gets tied to a stomp and sent back to the academy."

Now at a loss for what they were trying to say, he ignored the alarm clock that he heard in the distance. "That is correct," he said while glancing at Sasuke, who continued to glower at him.

Shrugging, Naruto spoke nonchalantly. "Well, we all have bells, so neither of us fails and all of us can have lunch."

Now knowing he was missing something, he squared his shoulders. "Sasuke doesn't have a bell."

Now smirking, Sasuke reached into his pocket and pulled out a bell, an exact replica of the one in Naruto's hand.

"I guess this means that we pass, eh Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked with a huge smile on her face.

Kakashi smiled as well, feeling something akin to giddiness as he looked at his first genin team. "I guess it would seem that way. Good job. Starting tomorrow, we will be performing our duties and missions as Team 7."

&&&&&

Huh, chapter number four done already. Hopefully I did a good job with the fighting, as well as the different personalities. And also, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Cya!

_**Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ōugi: Sennen Goroshi:**_ Thousand Years of Pain

_**Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu**_: Fire Element: Great Fireball Technique

_**Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu**_: Earth Element: Inner Decapitation

_**Futon: Renkuudan**_: Wind Element: Air Projectile

:) I'll try my best to describe them accurately in the text so you don't have to look at the bottom of the chapter to fully understand what the jutsu name means.


	5. Chapter 5: You are a curse, Uchiha

**Naruto: Darker Than Black**

"_Naruto-kun, how come she looks like that," Hinata asked Naruto from her place in the water. He looked over to her, momentarily losing concentration so that the grass spinning in his hand fell into his palm._

"_What do you mean, Hinata?" he asked her back, not sure what she meant. _

_Hinata stopped doing her own water control exercise, spinning a sphere of water in between two upraised hands, and the water fell back into the stream. She had mastered the water pulling exercise a while ago, and Naruto could tell she pretty much had the water spinning exercise mastered as well._

_Pointing at the ghost like spectra of Yin traveling in circles around him as he sat on the ground, Hinata answered. "She looks the same as she did when I first saw her a little over a year ago."_

_Looking at Yin's ghost like appearance, Naruto knew what she meant. "I guess it's because Yin has changed elements and isn't strong in the earth yet," he said. "It was the same with the water. At first, she looked like this and could only travel about a half mile. Now she looks almost normal, besides being incorporeal and bluish, and you can see all of her upper body while she is in water. She can also travel a mile and a half away from me to any water source as well."_

_Hinata thought about it as she sat down next to Naruto and also watched as Yin circled around the clearing. "So she will progress the same way as before?"_

"_She should," Naruto stated as he once again began concentrating on using his wind based chakra to spin the grass in his hand. _

**Chapter 5**

Nine ninjas sat around Sarutobi Hiruzen's office, all of them waiting for the same grey haired ex-ANBU captain to show up. Eight of them were here for the same reason, to tell the Hokage who had passed the true genin test, and for the ones that had passed, give the Hokage an overall assessment of the new Genin teams.

The Hokage himself was doing what paperwork he could before Kakashi showed up, which could be anywhere between a half hour to three hours. So far, Kakashi seemed to be only twenty minutes late. If it reached the half hour mark, Sarutobi would just go through the meeting without Kakashi and berate him later.

Iruka sat at a smaller table next to the Hokage's desk. He was there to help the Hokage with the new paperwork that came along with new squads. Sarutobi noticed Iruka looked especially worried, although after their brief conversation it was understandable. Sarutobi supposed he should not have told him that his favorite student's new Jonin sensei had never passed a genin squad before.

The door to his office opening cut off his musings and all the conversations going on around the room stopped. To his and the others surprise, Kakashi stepped in with what looked like a brand new Icha Icha Paradise book in his hands.

Noticing all the attention in the room directed at him, Kakashi closed the door but kept reading his new book. "Yo," he said to the group. "Sorry I'm late. A little fox went and destroyed my book so I had to go buy a new one."

The various occupants in the office all had different reactions. Sarutobi noticed Kurenai gritting her teeth and glaring at the book, an almost mad gleam in her eye. Asuma laughed and patted Kakashi hard on the back, earning his own glare from Kurenai. Genma and Gekkou also looked amused. Namiashi Raidou looked on at them disapprovingly.

Before Raidou could make his disapproval of Kakashi's lateness known, Sarutobi spoke up. "Glad you could get here before the meeting began. Now I don't have all day, I have a council meeting to attend to very shortly, so starting with Gekkou's team 1 tell me who passed and who didn't."

Gekkou coughed before speaking in a sickly voice. "Team 1 failed. I recommend they go back to the academy."

Nodding, Sarutobi pointed to Genma. "Team 2 had no teamwork and fought amongst themselves and failed. Send them back to the academy."

Teams 3, 4, 5, and 6 were the same way, all of them not passing and being recommended to go back to the academy. "Kakashi!" Iruka yelled when Kakashi did not say anything immediately when he was called on.

"Hn…" Kakashi asked as he looked up from his book. "Oh, it's my turn. Let's see. My team showed good teamwork and tried their hardest to kill me, so they passed."

Most of the people were stunned that he actually passed a team, but no one voiced this. Iruka looked to be mostly relieved, Sarutobi noticed with a chuckle.

"You passed them off the basis that they tried their best to see you dead?" Kurenai asked incredulously.

"Huh, did you say something, Kurenai-kun?" Kakashi asked before looking back down to his book. Gritting her teeth angrily, Kurenai looked back to Sarutobi, but not before making a threat.

"I would be careful, Kakashi. You never know who may be able to steal and burn those precious books of yours." Kakashi's head snapped up at this and Sarutobi noticed what he could see of his face pale.

Kurenai paid him no more mind. "Team 8 also passes. They showed superior tracking and fighting skills, and successfully passed my test."

Nodding, Sarutobi looked at his son. "Team 10 passed. Don't ask me how, but they did."

"Very good. Please have your report written by the end of the day and handed to Iruka-san. He will be helping me with missions until the next academy year starts. You are dismissed."

Everyone but Iruka and Kakashi left, Kurenai leaving with a strange smirk on her face as she glanced at Kakashi that put him on edge. Once the door closed, Kakashi put his book away and looked at the Hokage.

"Did you have something to discus that cannot wait, Kakashi," Sarutobi asked.

Kakashi glanced at Iruka, which the Hokage caught, before answering. "Hai."

"Iruka," Sarutobi spoke to the chunin to gain his attention. "Can you please wait outside for a couple of minutes while Kakashi and I talk?"

Iruka hesitated before nodding, a worried frown on his face. "Hai, Hokage-sama," he said before getting up from the desk and leaving.

"Well Kakashi, which one do you wish to talk about, Naruto or Sasuke," Sarutobi asked.

Kakashi got right to the point. "Hn, you wouldn't happen to know much about Uzumaki Kushina would you?"

Sarutobi looked shocked for a moment and wondered if Kakashi was going to ask what he thought. However, he did not ask as he apparently already knew.

"I already know about the relationship between Sensei and Naruto, Hokage-sama," Kakashi stated. "The man was the closest to a real father as I could get, I would recognize his offspring pretty easily. But even I didn't know Kushina that well as she and sensei's relationship didn't start until after I left his team and became a squad leader."

Thinking back to what he knew of Kushina, which was a lot, Sarutobi nodded. "I knew Kushina-kun quite well. Younger Naruto reminded me a lot of her. What do you want to know?"

Pausing, Kakashi spoke his question. "Naruto can use an A-rank lightening jutsu, based on what he did to Mizuki. Today he used what looked to be a C-rank lightening jutsu, perhaps A-rank depending on how much chakra control he has. He also used a B-rank wind jutsu towards the end," Kakashi said as he watched the Hokage's eyes widen.

"I see," Sarutobi said when Kakashi paused. "So he has already learned his elements. Are you worried about who has taught him these jutsu?"

"No," Kakashi answered shaking his head. "I'm not worried about Naruto's loyalty, he would never betray Konoha. I just wanted to ask if Kushina had a bloodline limit of some kind, because I know that sensei didn't."

Taken aback by the question, Sarutobi chuckled. "As much as she complained about it, no she never had a Kekkai genkai. Although she thought it unfair that others did." Looking at Kakashi's thoughtful look, Sarutobi had a feeling that did not answer Kakashi's true question. "Why do you ask, Kakashi?"

Kakashi looked at the Hokage and decided to tell him. "I saw Naruto doing a water control exercise when I arrived at the training grounds today, and he has it almost mastered. That means Naruto can use three elements, which should be impossible unless you have a bloodline limit."

Taking this in, Sarutobi sighed, already suspecting what Kakashi would say next. "So if it's not a Kekkai genkai, you believe the fox has something to do with it?"

"That seems the most plausible," Kakashi answered.

"Hn," Sarutobi leaned back in his seat. "I do not think it is anything to worry about. Like you said, Naruto is loyal to the Leaf. But if the fox's chakra is leaking into Naruto and changing him to such an extent, it would be wise to keep an eye on him. I myself will take a look at the seal when I have time and determine if this was an intention of Minato's or not."

Nodding, a satisfied Kakashi left the office.

&&&&&

The next day Team 7 walked into the mission hall to see a couple of teams and Jonin there getting their missions for the day. Naruto also noticed Iruka-sensei there behind a desk handing out missions. Not sure what to make of this, Naruto went over to ask why he was there and not at the academy. Team 7 followed him.

"Hi, Iruka-sensei," Sakura was the first to greet him.

Iruka looked up to see team 7 and smiled. "Hey Sakura, how are you and team 7 today?"

"We're okay," Sakura answered before shooting an annoyed glare at Kakashi before turning back to Iruka. "I would be better if some people woke up early enough to get to the team meeting spot on time!"

Iruka chuckled before reaching into the files that read D-rank. As he began to look through the mission files, Naruto decided to ask what he was wondering about. "Iruka-sensei, what are you doing here?"

Sakura felt an urge to smack him on the back of his head for the question but held back upon seeing Iruka chuckle. "Hehe, Naruto, you really should learn a little more tact."

Thinking, Naruto thought he had plenty of tact most of the time. He just did not see the point of it at this particular moment.

Seeing Naruto's unapologetic expression, he answered. "Well, since the academy is out for the next two months, I decided to help out here in the mission hall."

Shrugging, Naruto looked behind him at his sensei, who seemed to get the point. "You can pick the mission, Iruka-san," Kakashi spoke up.

Picking out a file, Iruka handed it to Kakashi. "Good luck on your first mission team 7, and do your best," Iruka said cheerfully. Sasuke grunted, while Sakura and Naruto gave polite thanks.

As Kakashi was walking toward the exit with his team following, someone called out to him. "Kakashi-senpai," the woman's voice carried over from behind one of the mission desks. Telling his team to meet him outside, Kakashi walked over to the attractive brunette he knew as owl when he was in ANBU.

"What can I do for you, Mikako-san?" Kakashi asked as he stood in front of her desk.

Smirking, she lifted a mission file from her desk and handed it to Kakashi. "I thought you might want to see this," she said in a low voice.

Curious, Kakashi put his book away and opened the file. What awaited him had him horror struck. After rereading it, he did not even notice droping the file back onto Mikako's desk.

"What? Why? How? Who?" Kakashi asked her, his one eye glaring down at the file.

Giggling, Mikako answered with a smirk. "You know that favor I still owed you? Well, I'll tell you what I can if you promise that I owe you no more favors."

Without hesitation Kakashi gave his consent.

Grinning wider, Mikako explained. "Well, the what is someone wants to hurt you as deeply as they can. The why should be obvious. The how is that they paid a good amount of money, essentially making it a C-rank mission. Now as for the who? I can't tell you who put in the request, but I can tell you who accepted it."

Still glaring at the file, Kakashi nodded. "Tell me," he said grimly.

Laughing softly, Mikako answered him with a grin. "Kurenai's team took it, even asked for it. Kind of suspicious, no?" Smirking evilly, Mikako put the file back where it belonged. "Good luck, Kakashi-senpai."

Shaking his head at the utter loathe Kurenai must have for him, he made his way outside where he saw his team waiting for him. Upon seeing Kakashi, the team came over to stand in front of him.

Noticing Kakashi was not reading his book, Naruto asked what was wrong. Sighing, Kakashi told them about their second mission.

"Listen, you guys now have the most important mission in all of Fire country. If you fail there will be dire consequences. Am I clear?" Kakashi asked, not a hint of his lazy attitude anywhere.

Gulping, Sakura looked at her sensei with fear. Glancing at her two teammates, she saw nothing but an eagerness to prove their worth.

"What do we have to do?" Sasuke asked, speaking for the first time since asking Naruto about the jutsu he used during the bell test.

Reaching into his pocket, Kakashi brought out his Icha Icha Paradise book. "All of these books have disappeared from all the stores, and this is the last one left in Konoha. That means we have to guard this with our lives!"

&&&&&

Kurenai looked at her team with appreciation. She honestly felt she had the best team out of all the new genins, and couldn't help but wonder how she got so lucky. Shino was the number two graduate in the class, Uchiha Sasuke the only one that had a higher overall exam score. During her test, he showed off how well he could perform his family jutsu, and she had a hard time keeping away from his bugs so not to be tracked.

Kiba showed that he knew his family taijutsu style well, so the low score he got from the academy in the taijutsu test really meant nothing. He also had a good nose on him, not as good as his sister's yet, but good none the less. He needed work on recognizing genjutsu as she was able to fool him and his dog many times before the end of the test.

Hinata had been a surprise to her. Kurenai thought she knew the girl quite well considering she was often charged with watching out for Hinata when she left the Hyuga housing district. During the test, however, she was forced to see she knew very little about the young heiress anymore.

Hinata had been the one to find her even with Kurenai using a special genjutsu she created just to fool the Hyuga. Not only was she the one to first find her, but during the attempted capture the girl had showed off two water jutsu and closed off the chakra from her left arm during the fight. The girl was fast and agile and showed her own delicate style of the Gentle Fist. By the way Hyuga Hiashi still treated her talked down on her, Kurenai had the suspicion that Hinata had never showed him her true skills.

Right now Kurenai and her team stood in front of a huge pile of books. All of the Icha Icha books in Konoha had been confiscated (stolen) from the stores and were now burning away. She had to stop Kiba from taking some for himself and she found it hilarious how the blushing Hinata had kept her Byakugan active while they were piling the books up.

"Alright," she said to her team. "Now the hardest part of the mission starts now. You all know what to do, so let's try our best and not fail."

"Hai, sensei," her squad said in unison as Shino lead them to where he had implanted some of his tracking bugs on two members of team 7.

&&&&&

"Finally," Sakura exclaimed when she threw the last bag of potatoes into the shed. Their mission, which according to Kakashi was a mission to hide the real mission, was to pick all the potatoes in the field and put them in the storing shed. It had taken over two hours but would have taken way longer if it wasn't for Naruto.

Sasuke seemed to grunt in agreement. He had been in a foul mood since he found out what D-rank missions actually were. Not only that, but his new sensei had forbid Naruto from teaching him the Kage Bunshin jutsu, which Naruto used to shorten the mission time, because Kakashi said that it could kill him. Apparently the dobe had way more chakra than he did, which pissed him off, so Sasuke could not safely use it.

"Wait a couple years and we'll see, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi-sensei had told him.

In addition to that, Naruto had explained that the lightening jutsu he had used could not be taught to Sasuke because he had an affiliation toward fire, not lightening, and the electric wire jutsu was all chakra control that didn't require handseals.

The old man who owned the farm thanked them for their hard work and they left down the road towards inner Konoha. Halfway there however, Naruto stopped. Tilting his head he looked towards the woods before kneeling down and putting his palm on the ground.

"What are you doing, dobe," Sasuke asked when he noticed.

However, it was not Naruto that answered. "Shh, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said quietly, surprising Sasuke and Kakashi both. Both turned toward her, Kakashi even stopping his reading.

Glancing at Naruto, Kakashi decided to ask what he was doing. But again Sakura cut him off.

"He did this during the test yesterday," she said, slightly blushing at the attention her crush was giving her. "It's how we found you two."

"And what exactly is the dobe doing?" Sasuke asked.

Frowning slightly at the continued name calling, Sakura answered. "He's scouting."

Shocked, Kakashi stared at Naruto, who seemed to be staring at something only he could see. "How is he scouting, Sakura?" he asked the girl.

Before she could answer, Naruto finally spoke up. "It's my Kekkei genkai, sensei." Sasuke looked stunned at this while Kakashi nearly smiled at how well Naruto could lie.

"I'm able to extend my chakra outside my body into a transparent form, and she is able to scout," Naruto explained. "My range is about 2.4km if I use the earth, and about 4.8km if I use it on water. Right now Yin is working on traveling through the air without using the air's moisture, but that seems to be harder than using the earth."

Kakashi looked down at Naruto in amazement. "Yin?" Kakashi asked.

"You're chakra manifests into a girl," Sasuke asked with a smirk.

Naruto nodded. "Yea, and she's actually quite pretty too. If you saw her you'll probably die from a nosebleed, Sasuke."

"Naruto!" Sakura growled while Sasuke's smirk grew.

"That's a pretty good skill," Kakashi cut in before Sakura could show her jealous tendencies. "And what does your friend say?"

Standing up, Naruto answered. "It's Team 8. And because Hinata can see Yin with her Byakugan, I would guess that she already knows that we know they are there."

"I see," Kakashi said putting his book into his pocket. "Where are they?"

"Kurenai-san is sneaking up behind us while her team is coming from the woods to create a distraction," Naruto said. "They should be here soon."

Kakashi had already thought about who he would like to see face who, so Kakashi was already ready for this attack on his precious. "Alright. Naruto, you take on the Aburame. Sasuke you get the Hyuga. Sakura, take out the dog boy as fast as you can, than come help me out. Those two genjutsu you learned from Naruto's scroll should be enough."

Sakura and Naruto exchanged surprised looks both wondering how Kakashi knew about that. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at them.

Before he could voice his displeasure at being left out, hundreds of bugs shot out of the trees. Both Sasuke and Naruto were already running through handseals, both finishing at the same time.

"_**Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu**_," Sasuke yelled as he fired his jutsu at the incoming bugs.

"_**Futon: Renkuudan**_," Naruto also said his jutsu and spat out the Wind projectile.

Both attacks hit each other halfway there. When they hit, the fireball seemed to not only expand but also moved faster until it hit the trees where it exploded. Broken trees parts flew in the air as smoke engulfed the area. Both Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other.

"That was pretty good," Naruto said. Sasuke grunted in agreement.

"This isn't funny!" Sakura yelled at him with tears in her eyes. "What if you actually killed them?"

Sasuke scowled and looked towards the fire. Was it possible that they had killed them? He had not meant to combine his and Naruto's attacks. Looking back over at the blond, even he was surprised when he shrugged the comment off.

"The only one of those three I care about is Hinata," he said in an impassive voice. "And I know for a fact that she can dispel that weak of an attack. If the others were too weak or slow to avoid it, that's their own fault."

Sakura frowned at that. She was disturbed by what he said. Did he really not care what happened to his fellow shinobi? When had he gotten so cold hearted? Looking behind her to see what her sensei thought of this, she saw that he was further away from them in the middle of a field, facing a woman with black hair.

"YOU BASTARDS!" a sudden enraged yell came from her left. Turning that way, out of the smoke came a wild looking boy, Kiba, his fist cocked back to hit her. However, before he got to her, a foot came and smashed his face, knocking him away.

Pulling out shuriken, Sasuke yelled at her. "Pay attention Sakura!" he said before throwing the shuriken at Kiba. However, before they hit, Hinata appeared in front of him and spun. Sakura was amazed to see rotating blue chakra knock all the shuriken away before it stopped.

Hinata stood there in a modified version of the Gentle fist taijutsu stance, her Byakugan already active. She saw and heard Kiba growl and stand up behind her. "Kiba-san," she spoke in her soft but firm voice. "Please fight Sakura-san. I will take on Sasuke."

Kiba growled again as he looked around. "No way! Where's that dead last blond, I'm gonna kick his ass!"

Eyes still trained on the Uchiha but still able to see Kiba, she voiced her disapproval. "Kiba-san, Naruto-kun has already engaged Shino in combat. It would be easier for you to take on Sakura-san and then go help Shino as soon as possible."

"But Hinata, he nearly killed Akamaru!" Kiba yelled. Indeed, his faithful dog was now unconscious with slight burns all around the left side of his body. He had run Akamaru to a nearby cave to hide him while he fought.

"Both he and Sasuke were responsible for that. Besides, Kurenai-sensei told you to take on Sakura-san while I took on Naruto-kun and Shino took care of Sasuke," she explained. "Kurenai-sensei told us to do that for a reason. Shino is no match for Naruto-kun, so you will have to beat Sakura-san and help him."

"He's just the dead last," Kiba mumbled with a frown as he got on all fours. "I don't know what you like about him so much." Pushing off with his back legs, Kiba raced toward Sakura.

Sakura ran towards him as well and made a hand seal. "_**Bunshin no Jutsu**_," she said and two other Sakura's appeared next to her. Kiba stopped mid charge.

"You think I'm that stupid!" Kiba yelled as he swiped his long nails at the middle Sakura. "You haven't changed position. Plus I can smell the real you!"

However, he was shocked when his hand went right through the middle Sakura. "Kiba watch out!" he heard Hinata scream right before he was kicked in the chin and knocked into the air where he felt Sakura kick him in the stomach. He soared a good distance away and rolled to a stop.

Grasping for breath, he stood back up. All around him were at least two dozen Sakura's. But what really worried him was the fact that he couldn't smell the real one.

Smirking, a Sakura walked up to him. He swung a punch that went right through her again.

Giggling, the Sakura that walked up to him got right into his face. "What's wrong, can't smell the real me?"

"Shut up!" Kiba growled at her. As soon as he said it, the Sakura in front of him punched him in his chin. He fell on his back, wondering how she was able to do that. Hadn't he already tried to punch her?

Smirking down at him in triumph, Sakura put a foot on his chest. He was taken aback once again when he felt no pressure.

"What the hell is going on?"

&&&&&

Sasuke smirked as he witnessed Sakura beat up on Kiba. "Look at that, Hyuga. Your pet dog is getting beat by academy jutsu."

Hinata watched with her Byakugan as Sakura once again did a body switch with a tree part that one of her Bunshin were standing in front of and punched Kiba again, moving them farther away from her and Sasuke. Hinata had to admit she was impressed. Using a scent covering Genjutsu, mixed with that many Bunshins and continuously body switching took a lot of concentration and chakra control.

"Don't think about helping him, Hyuga," Sasuke said. "You have more pressing concerns right now."

Hinata looked at the Uchiha. She truly did not understand what all the other girls saw in him. He was arrogant, cocky, and haughty. And there was nothing unique about him. He had black eyes, black hair, and wore blue. Naruto-kun was so much better, she thought with a slight blush gracing her cheeks. Naruto-kun was nice, sweet, protective, ambitious, and funny, wore orange, and had whisker birthmarks on his cheeks. She wondered if he would purr if she pets him there…

"What the hell are you thinking about!" Sasuke's yell reached her before she could get too far into her fantasy.

"Sorry," she apologized to him. "I was thinking about something else."

Sasuke snarled. "You bitch! Who do you think you are? I'll make you regret underestimating an Uchiha." Sasuke attacked as fast as he could. However, as soon as he got within striking range, Hinata's hands blurred. The next thing he knew he was on his back with no feeling in his right arm and a piercing pain in his chest that made it hard to breath.

Gritting his teeth, he rose to his feet wondering what the hell happened. "What did you do to me, Hyuga," he asked with his lungs burning.

Hinata seemed to stare at him, although he could not tell if she was focused on him or not since she could be looking at just about anything.

"You are nothing, Uchiha, but a curse," Hinata spoke softly yet firmly.

Angry, Sasuke yelled as he tried to attack again. However, just like last time she moved too fast to keep up with. He could not even count how many times she hit his left arm before finishing with a palm strike to his stomach that made him spit out blood.

He fell once again on his back, but this time he could not feel his left arm. And not only did his chest hurt, his stomach burned as well.

Hinata looked down at him. "You are not as strong as Naruto-kun, and even he will tell you that he could not beat me in a taijutsu match. If he cannot, than a curse like you has no hope."

"Fuck you! I am not a curse…" His yell was cut short when Hinata stomped on his chest and kept her foot there.

"You are a curse, just like all the Uchiha were," she said with more heat than she ever allowed herself to show. "I've read the Hyuga sacred texts. I know all about where you came from and what you are capable of. I know you must have read your own secret text, so you know what I speak of. It is disgusting."

She paused as she watched in fascination as the Sasuke squirmed underneath her, calling her names as tears started appearing in his eyes. She wondered if she should say what she truly felt.

She decided that she needed to tell someone as Naruto was entirely too loyal to Konoha as a whole to like what she really thought. Stomping one more time on his chest to shut Sasuke up, she glared down at him.

"You dare look down on me?" she asked. "Do not forget where your Sharingan comes from Uchiha. The moment your clan stole the Byakugan and twisted it to fill your power crazed minds, you have been cursed. Brothers killing brothers, friends killing friends, son's killing their fathers, all for the sake of power. Your clan was filled and consumed with hatred."

She took her foot off a wide eyed Sasuke as he wondered how she knew all of this. Bending down, she put two fingers at both his temples and said what she really thinks of the Uchiha Massacre.

"I think your brother was a hero," she whispered to him. Sasuke's wide eyes fill with hatred. "I think he wanted to end that chain of hatred, and killed all of the Uchiha's. I prayed my thanks to the gods that he killed your cursed clan."

Sasuke's eyes flared red for a second before going back to black. "I hate you. I hate you! I'll kill your entire family just so you know how it fills before I kill you!" Sasuke yelled as loud as he could.

"Please do try," she said. "You are the second to last Uchiha. The sooner you die the better." With that she lightly tapped his temples with her chakra infused fingers and he fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

Here's chapter 5. Tell me what you think or ask any questions about anything you don't understand.

Cya!


	6. Chapter 6: First Mission Success

**: The Characters and world you recognize that aren't mine are not mine.**

**Naruto: Darker Than Black**

"_I had another nightmare last night Yin," Naruto said to the full body spectra in front of him. He was sitting at the river bank with his feet in the water as he unsuccessfully tried to read his history book about the second Hokage's reign. But his mind kept wondering to his nightmare. _

_Yin tilted her head and surveyed him. "Was it the same one?" she asked him._

"_Hai," he said. "Only this time there was a woman with red hair. She was crying, and then yelling at me, then hugging me. I was confused, but then I turned into a giant fox and ate her."_

"_And then you were alone?" Yin asked when he paused. He nodded to her and averted his eyes feeling ashamed. _

"_I don't like feeling these things Yin," he said to her. "I don't like having to ask you to take my bad feelings and pain away from me all the time because I'm too scared and weak to deal with em'." Tears threatened to leak from his eyes, but they did not fall._

"_You must be so strong Yin," he continued as he looked up at her face. Her eyes stared back at him, and although he could never tell what she was thinking through them, she must not think too badly of him if she continued to be there for him. "You are just able to take my burdens away and make it seem like nothing, even though they must hurt you as much as they hurt me."_

_Yin didn't say anything for a moment and Naruto once again averted his eyes. "But I don't want to feel so alone anymore Yin, so I can't stop asking you to keep using the mask to make me not feel so much, to make me not care." _

_Surprising Naruto, Yin lifted her hand to the side of his face even though he felt no physical touch. "I will always be there to protect you, Naruto. It doesn't hurt me because I am helping you."_

_After she said this she slowly disappeared and he felt her back in his mind, ready to put on the thunder bolt mask that held his pain and feelings. She would take all his feelings away and dull them to the point where he could forget about his nightmare, how lonely he felt, his shame, and his guilt. _

_Not too far from where he sat, an eleven and a half year old Hinata sat behind a tree hugging her legs to herself. Tears were running down her cheeks as she sobbed silently so not to let Naruto know that she had seen and heard him at his weakest moment. _

_Sniffling, she finally got her tears under control. "You are not alone, Naruto-kun," she said softly to herself. "I'm there for you. I'll always be there with you. And Yin is not the only one that can protect and help you. And I'll prove it!"_

**Chapter 6**

Shino lay on the ground panting. He was exhausted and he hurt everywhere. He had been surprised when Kurenai-sensei had told them their assignments as they headed to find Team 7 after burning all those books.

Kiba was to take on Sakura. This was fair as Kiba was the weakest of the team at the moment, so logically could not take on Naruto or Sasuke. Kiba had been upset as he wanted to take on Naruto, but Kurenai-sensei had said that she had a talk with Hinata, and there was no way Kiba could take on Naruto at his current level. Of course, he never asked to go up against Sasuke as he had plenty of experience losing to the number one rookie at the academy.

Naturally, Shino thought it was logical that he would be the one to face Naruto as he was the second strongest of Team 7 and Shino had concluded with Kiba and Kurenai-sensei that Hinata was by far more advanced than her teammates. He turned out to be wrong, as according to Kurenai Naruto was the worse match up Shino could have, so he was supposed to take on Sasuke.

Shino did not understand it. What had Hinata told their sensei about Naruto to make her think that he was more of a threat than the number one rookie? He understood now.

After the air and fire jutsu combo that Naruto and Sasuke had displayed, which shocked both of his teammates as well as himself, he had lost half of his bugs. As he recovered from being blasted away and hitting a tree, he went to join his teammates but never made it out of the woods.

Three Naruto's had charged at him the moment he got to the edge of the tree lines. Like always, Naruto was fast and strong, but Shino was second best in taijutsu for a reason, and he was able to hold them off even as they pushed him back.

However, as they were pushing him back, his bugs warned him of someone approaching behind him. He had tried to push back the three Narutos but then they all held up a hand seal and disappeared in clouds of white smoke. Before the smoke cleared or he could get out, a hand gripped the back of his head.

"Don't move or you're dead," a firm voice spoke behind him.

"You would kill over a training exercise, Naruto?" Shino had asked him.

"Of course not," he answered. "But I could kill you by frying your brain. That's the point."

"I see," Shino said just as dozens of bugs flew out his coat and attacked Naruto.

Jumping away, Shino turned to face a bug covered Naruto. Shino was surprised to see Naruto looking as unconcerned as he usually did.

"These bugs are special. They are part of my family techniques and they will drain you of your chakra."

"I suggest you get them off me, Shino," Naruto spoke. "Unless you want them all to die."

"How do you expect to accomplish this if they take all your chakra? I would suggest that you surrender so that I may help sensei complete our objectives."

Naruto shrugged. "It's already too late. My chakra is too unstable to hold this back now." Raising an eyebrow, Shino didn't have time to ask what he meant as the clone exploded. Shino jumped backwards and covered his face to protect it from the blast.

Someone jumping down from the trees made him turn. He saw Naruto there flipping through some hand seals. "_**Raiton: Washi no Jutsu**_," Naruto yelled as he thrust his palm forward.

A bird the size and shape of an eagle made of lightening shot out and was onto Shino at an incredible speed. It hit him square in the chest and he felt his body being electrified even as he flew backwards into a tree where he fell to the ground.

And now he was on the ground in more pain they he ever felt in his life. His could not move and he felt many of his bugs that he held in his body were dead. He heard footsteps before Naruto stopped, and Shino was not surprised to hear him panting from using such a high level jutsu.

"You should be able to move yourself in about an hour or two," Naruto said breathlessly. I'll leave a clone here to watch over you until the mission is over."

Shino heard him jump onto a tree and then disappear. He had so many questions he wanted to ask Naruto. Like how he did not pass the test to graduate if he could do this to him, how was he able to make solid and exploding clones, and why the bugs that he had put on him earlier outside the mission hall had not depleted him of enough chakra to prevent him from using jutsu at all.

'He is a monster,' Shino thought in his head in wonder as he let out a chuckle no one outside his coat would ever hear.

&&&&&

Standing up with her Byakugan still active Hinata looked behind her. Sakura was there, trying to sneak up to her. "Genjutsu will not work on the Byakugan, Sakura-san," Hinata said, halting Sakura in her tracks. "It is one of the reasons why the Hyuga clan has always been the Uchiha rivals for strongest in the village."

Gritting her teeth, Sakura looked at Sasuke to make sure that he was alright. Besides the trail of blood from his mouth, he looked to be in fine shape.

"What did you do to Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked angrily. In truth she was scared. If Sasuke-kun had lost in a fight with Hinata, which before today she never would have expected of the kind and quiet Hyuga, than she did not stand a chance.

"I put him to sleep," Hinata said unconcerned as her eyes bore into Sakura's. "I do not understand you, Sakura-san."

Surprised, Sakura did not know what to say to that. "What do you mean?"

Hinata ignored her and scanned the area around her to make sure Naruto-kun was nowhere close. "I do not understand Naruto-kun's fascination with you."

Even more shocked, from both what she said and the aggressive undertone in which she said it, Sakura took a step back.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sakura said to the girl, who had gone back into her fighting stance. "I am sure that Naruto doesn't like me anymore. As a matter of fact, I know that he pretty much detests me."

Her words did not seem to have any effect on Hinata though, as her facial expression did not change.

"What is so special about you, Sakura-san? After treating Naruto-kun like trash for so long, with the way that you act, and how weak you are, why does Naruto-kun still have lingering feelings for you?"

Sakura got into her own fighting stance. "Listen, Hinata. Naruto doesn't like me like that okay. He even let me know why. According to him I'm just another unreasonable, unrealistic, and irrational fangirl who is going to get him and Sasuke-kun killed one day. So you don't have to worry."

Hinata narrowed her eyes, focusing entirely on Sakura. She could not find any dishonesty in her face. If Sakura believed that, than that was fine with her. There was no point in telling her about last night during dinner. She would not tell her how Naruto had expressed how Sakura impressed him by learning one Genjutsu in a night and using it to get the bells from their sensei. She would just prove to Naruto-kun here and now that she was the better of the two.

Hinata pushed off the ground and closed the distance between the two as fast as she could. Sakura's eyes widened at her speed. 'She's faster than Sasuke and Naruto,' she thought to herself as she tried to raise her arms in a cross to defend against the palm strike.

However, right before the strike hit Hinata spun in a circle and hit four chakra points in Sakura's back shoulder and arm in quick succession. Sakura let out a short scream in surprise and pain before jumping backwards clutching her arm.

Pulling out a kunai Sakura threw it at the girl with her usable arm, but Hinata easily dipped down and avoided it and sprung forward once more. This time she was too close for Sakura to put up a defense of any kind so she had no chance to stop Hinata. With more speed than Sakura had ever seen, Hinata's arms and hands blurred too fast to keep up with.

However, only two sequences into her _**Hakke Sanjūni Shō**_ (Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms technique), a shuriken with a wire wrapped around Hinata's right forearm stopping her. Already berating herself inside for not paying attention to her surroundings, Hinata pulled out a Kunai from her pouch and infused it with her chakra. Jumping away from Sakura, who had fallen to her knees, she swung the Kunai and cut the wire just before the electric current reached her.

Landing, she watched as Naruto ran out the trees and stood in front of Sakura. Hinata pulled out the shuriken that the wire was attached to from her forearm. Going through one handed seals, her hand glowed green as she healed the cut.

"You alright, Sakura?" Naruto asked the girl on her knees. He could tell she was in pain from the tears that leaked down her cheeks. Naruto had no idea what technique Hinata was using when he interrupted, only that it was fast and probably closed off some of her chakra points. Naruto was not sure how many Hinata closed off before he could stop her.

Sniffling, Sakura tried to stop the tears. Her upper body hurt so much, and she felt numb all along her left upper body. But she needed to stop crying. After telling Naruto just yesterday that she was stronger than he thought she goes and starts crying over a little pain.

"Sakura!" Naruto yelled and she finally looked up at him. "I saw that you beat Kiba and tied him to a tree. You did a good job with him."

Blinking away the rest of her tears, Sakura looked at Naruto. His face and voice was just as impassive as ever, but his words made her feel better about how easily Hinata was able to beat her.

"But we're not done yet," he continued as he watched Hinata get into her modified gentle fist stance. He has seen her practice it on more than one occasion in the past six months, but he had only fought against the regular gentle fist style one time. "Can you move?" he asked Sakura.

"Um, I can't feel the left side of my upper body," she said while she used her good arm to help her stand. "But I can stand."

"Alright, I need you to go to Kakashi-sensei while I fight Hinata," he said to Sakura as he made a clone that picked up Sasuke.

Sakura shook her head. "No, we have to fight her together. She's too fast. She even took out Sasuke-kun."

Naruto never took his eyes off Hinata. "What's our mission Sakura?"

"To protect Kakashi-sensei's hentai book," she answered him.

"That's right," Naruto said. "This is just a training exercise and part of our first mission, so we have to prove that we can handle it as well as complete it."

Sakura thought about it and he was right, but at the same time she did not want to abandon Naruto. Even with Hinata's crush on him, she was taking this very seriously and would not hesitate to beat Naruto as she had Sasuke-kun.

"Don't worry," Naruto told her getting into a fighting stance as he seen Hinata start to shift impatiently. "I appreciate you wanting to help me, but you will just get in the way. Sasuke and you both made the mistake of trying to fight Hinata with taijutsu. Even I got my ass beat when I convinced her to fight me with her family style."

"But I know how to fight her," he continued. "So go help Kakashi-sensei protect his book."

Sakura hesitated for a moment later before nodding. "Okay. Be careful," she said before running as fast as her tired and numb body could to where she saw Kakashi standing in front of a woman. The Naruto clone trailed behind her.

"You ready Hinata?" Naruto asked.

"Hai," she answered before pushing off her legs and closing the distance between the two. Naruto ran backwards and put his hands in a seal. "_**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu**_," he said and two clones appeared beside him before running to face Hinata head on.

Hinata did not slow down as she attacked both clones at the same time. Dodging Naruto was always easy even when she sparred with him with the academy taijutsu. And she could tell from the chakra inside the bodies that they were not the explosive clones that he had showed her he learned.

With no wasted movement she used her gentle fist and delivered a palm strike to one of the clone's heart where he dispelled. Dodging a kick from the other Naruto, she was about to deliver a palm strike to it when she saw Naruto flipping through hand seals.

"_**Futon: Renkuudan,**_" she heard. Jumping back from the clone, she saw the wind projectile destroy it and head for her.

"_**Hakkeshō Kaiten**_," she yelled as she spun in place. Spinning blue chakra leaked out of her chakra points. When the wind projectile hit it the wind just spun with the blue chakra shield before it disintegrated. Stopping, Hinata began to breath heavy and knew she would only be able to use that one more time before she ran out of chakra. But she was happy to note that Naruto still had trouble with his chakra output and was also breathing heavier because of wasting so much chakra.

Digging into his pocket, Naruto brought out a scroll and jumped into the air. Unrolling the scroll, twenty one special two bladed daggers shot out in a swirl pattern. They all landed around a wide eyed Hinata with her in the middle, all of them evenly spaced out. Landing in front of the outer most dagger, Naruto was about to flip through handseals for his _**Raiton: Washi no Jutsu**_ but Hinata was already moving through her own.

Spitting at seemingly nothing, Hinata went through handseals as fast as she could. "_**Suiton: Suiben**_," she said and her spit suddenly became a long whip made of water. Grabbing the end, she sent the whip to the nearest dagger. The whip wrapped around the handle and pulled it out the ground. Twirling the whip overhead she released the dagger where it flew at Naruto, who dodged. She repeated the process four more times as she got herself out of the swirl, where she was safe at the moment.

Naruto gave a small grin when she got out. "How did you know?" he asked her.

Blushing slightly, Hinata answered. "I saw you practicing it one day, Naruto-kun. There is some type of seal on the handles of the daggers that amplifies and redirects lightening and electricity. I saw you send out your lightening bird to the dagger closest to you where it travels around the swirl gathering strength and speed until it reaches the last one and shoots at the target. When I saw you use it you blew up a tree Naruto-kun," she finished a little hurt he tried to do that to her.

Getting serious again, Naruto nodded. "I wasn't gonna finish the jutsu, Hinata. I was going to tell you to stop and let you know what I was doing so that you would give up. I figured you would be more reasonable than Shino."

Smiling and already feeling better that he had not actually tried to kill her, she nodded. "You did not hurt Shino-san too badly I hope."

"He'll be able to move in a couple of hours," Naruto answered as he pulled out two kunai, squatted down and crossed his wrists. Hinata's eyes widened.

"Naruto-kun, you should not do that," she said worried.

Naruto smirked. "I think I can do it now. I practiced with the Kage Bunshin so I should be fine." He then began to gather his wind chakra into the kunai to make it as sharp as he could. He was not as good at it as the Hokage's son, who he had seen do it once, but it was enough to cut human flesh and muscle. Bending, Naruto sprung up from his position and ran at Hinata.

Halfway there, he concentrated most of his chakra in his legs and shot off going more than twice as fast as before. When he got close enough, he spun himself with his kunai extended to the sides at the same time as Hinata started her own spin.

"_**Hakkeshō Kaiten**_," she yelled.

At the same time, he said the name of his own jutsu. "_**Kamikaze Kaiten**_," he yelled.

There was a small explosion as Naruto and Hinata's techniques hit each other. However, when the dust cleared Hinata was standing panting but unharmed while Naruto was on his knees a couple meters away.

"Still not fast or strong enough to compete with your Kaiten, eh Hinata?" he asked.

Hinata frowned in worry as she straightened herself up. "Naruto-kun, your legs," she said softly as she inspected them with her Byakugan.

"Yes, I know," he said. He could hardly feel his legs and knew that some of his muscles had ripped off the bone while others were just torn. Luckily he could barely feel the pain thanks to Yin, and his Nee-chan had already begun his healing. "I guess I'm still not ready to use that technique yet."

Hinata walked in front of Naruto as she turned off her Byakugan so that she would not be tempted to look at his legs to see how bad he had hurt them. "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but I have to end this so that I can go help sensei."

"What makes you think you won Hinata?" he said.

Hinata narrowed her eyes dangerously. "And what do you plan to do if you cannot use your legs, Naruto-kun," she asked.

When they practice and spar she usually had a rigorous look of concentration. This was the first time that he had ever seen Hinata actually give him such an aggressive look, and Naruto had to admit it was quite attractive.

"I've already done what I plan," he said and just then an arm surged out the ground and grabbed her ankle. Hinata shrieked in surprise as her Byakugan automatically activated. Before she could do anything to counter, the hand pulled her into the earth where she was buried up to her neck.

"Ahh, what was that!" she asked. But as she scanned below the earth, she could see a Naruto disperse in smoke.

"I remember when you told me how the Byakugan has trouble seeing too far into the earth, especially without practice, so even before I showed myself I created a clone," Naruto told her as he put a hand on her head. "I win!"

Hinata blinked a few times as some dirt was beginning to get in her eyes. She knew that with his hand on her head like that he could use that one jutsu to kill her. "Your right, Naruto-kun. You win," she conceited.

Naruto took his hand off her head and put them on the ground in front of her. He poured some of his chakra into it to loosen up the Earth. "Climb out," he told her. Nodding, she pulled herself out the ground until she was sitting next to Naruto. They were both facing where their respective senseis were and saw that they were already heading over.

Naruto saw that Hinata had her head down. She had a sad expression and he thought that he knew why, so he pocked her on the forehead.

"Oww," Hinata looked up pouting, and Naruto was struck at how cute that also made her. He needed to find out why lately he was suddenly having these weird surges of feelings and attractiveness toward Hinata.

"Do you remember the first time we sparred?" he asked her.

Blinking in surprise at the question, she nodded. "Hai."

"I beat you easily," he said still looking out toward where he could see his carrying Sasuke. "Up until six months ago I was able to beat you really easy. Then you stopped really sparring with me, and I didn't know why. But I'm glad that you took my advice and read those forbidden text and jutsu you said you were not allowed to look at."

Hinata blushed and almost ducked her head again. "I wanted to surprise you, Naruto-kun. I wanted to show you more of what I learned, but I was not able to."

"Surprise me?" he asked. "Why would you want to do that? Who knows, I might have been able to help you out."

This time Hinata did put her head down as well as pock her fingers together as she blushed even harder. "Be…Because, I wanted to sh..show you that Yin is not your only friend and the only one that can protect you, Naruto-k..kun."

Stunned, Naruto did not know what to say at first. She wanted to protect him and be his friend despite the fact that he told her he could never feel the same way toward her. He had told her his Kekkei genkai dulled his emotions so he did not know how to be friends, but she still helped him, still stood by him, and still got stronger to protect and help him.

Naruto wrapped an arm around Hinata's shoulder and pulled her downward until her head was resting on his thighs. "You have gotten really strong Hinata-chan," he said as he began to comb his hand through her hair like his Nee-chan did a couple times to him. Looking out, he saw Kurenai and Sakura had suddenly stopped. "You would have beaten me today if it weren't for the Byakugan's weakness. We'll just have to come up with a way to get rid of it, yea?"

"H..Hai," Hinata answered him right before she closed her eyes in bliss and fell unconscious from the shock of Naruto-kun adding the honorific to her name and the wonderful feeling of him touching her.

&&&&&

"Wow," Kurenai said as she once again began walking. Sakura looked just as equally surprised at seeing Naruto treat Hinata in such a way.

"Hn," Kakashi looked up from his book and saw what the other two were so shocked about. When he saw it he was equally surprised, but also slightly suspicious, even though he did not show it.

"When did they get that close?" Sakura asked wide eyed. "Are they dating?"

Kurenai shook her head. "No," she said. "She has always had a crush on him, but for reasons you don't need to know Hinata's father would never allow them to date. And I haven't seen much of Hinata before yesterday since she was nine, so I'm not sure when they became friends."

"So it looks as though we completed our mission and protected my precious treasure," Kakashi said as they got closer to Naruto and Hinata. He was not sure what had happened to Naruto's legs and he knew he had to ask how the hell Naruto had learned that earth jutsu. He was sure it was not a coincidence that Naruto used the exact same one he had used against Sasuke the day before.

"All that money you spent on a C-rank mission for nothing," Kakashi finished.

However, Kurenai just smirked. "Oh don't worry, Kakashi," she said. "That was not my money. That mission just came from an organization that I am a part of." She stopped and grabbed Sakura's shoulder as she looked at a wide eyed Kakashi. "And my mission was pretty much a success. We did get rid of all the Icha Icha books in Konoha besides yours and the Hokages'."

"Wait," Kakashi stammered out as Kurenai left with Sakura so she could show her where Kiba was tied up. "Organization? What organization!?" he yelled but she just ignored him and Sakura giggled. Traitor.

Sighing, he walked the rest of the way to where Naruto waited with the Hyuga princess. The Naruto clone followed in his wake.

Naruto looked to be in deep thought. "What happened to your legs?" he asked him.

Coming out of whatever trance he was in, Naruto looked down and slightly shook Hinata awake. Blinking, she noticed Kakashi in front of her first, than remembered the events that transpired and how she had fallen unconscious. Standing up quickly, she quickly bowed to Kakashi before turning to Naruto.

"Sorry for falling asleep on you Naruto-kun," she said blushing deeply. "I have to go see Kurenai-sensei and check on my teammates." With that she turned and ran away.

Eyes following her, Naruto answered Kakashi. "I have trouble with my chakra control when it comes to how much I use for jutsu. One of the ones I created sends chakra to my legs, but so far I haven't been able to control how much chakra I use real well."

"So how bad did you mess up your legs," Kakashi asked taking note that the jutsu Naruto apparently copied from the Hyuga's _**Hakkeshō Kaiten**_ was not the only jutsu he had created.

"Most of the muscle ripped apart from the bone," Naruto answered unemotionally. Kakashi was taken aback. Surely that had to hurt like hell!

"I see you must be made of some tough stuff not to be crying your eyes out right now," Kakashi said as he thought about teaching his minions how to walk on trees.

Naruto just shrugged. "Yin takes care of that," he said surprising Kakashi once again. Now he knew he had to get the Hokage to check the seal on Naruto's stomach. "And you know why I heal so fast," Naruto finished with a meaningful look at Sasuke.

Turning his eye toward Sasuke, he saw that he was waking up. "What happened?" Sasuke said groggily.

Kakashi silently cursed. Naruto was willingly answering his questions, and apparently he thought that Yin and the Kyubi were two different beings. Could they be? Or was it a trick to make Naruto think that he really did have a bloodline limit? But now he could not get any answers.

"Nothing much," Naruto said with disinterest. "You just got your ass kicked by Hinata."

Sasuke's eyes went wide and he pushed himself off of the Naruto clone. "That bitch," he growled as he swayed and fell to one knee as he held a hand to his head. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the sudden aggression as he wondered if there was more to the loathing than just getting beaten.

Sasuke's head suddenly snapped up and he fixed Kakashi with a sharp gaze. "You have to teach me," he said. "How am I supposed to kill Itachi if I can't even beat some bitch Hyuga?!"

Kakashi looked into his eyes and only saw determination. Perhaps he could help him out more than he planned to.

"You have the Sharingan right?" Naruto's voice cut in before Kakashi could answer and thoroughly shocking him more than it should have. Sasuke seemed to be even more surprised.

"Hn, how did you know that?" Kakashi asked.

"You're in the Iwa and Underground Bingo Books," Naruto said as though it was not any big deal. Which it was since the only place a shinobi could find those Bingo Books in Konoha were at the ANBU headquarters. "They say that you have the Sharingan and you know over a thousand jutsu. Your rating is pretty high too."

"Is that true?" Sasuke demanded.

Kakashi just nodded as he continued to stare into his book. "But I'm not teaching you any jutsu. At least not until you gain more chakra control."

Before Sasuke could argue his point, Naruto once again spoke up. "But Hinata once told me that just like the Hyuga have a special taijutsu for the Byakugan, the Uchiha did as well for the Sharingan," he said as he watched Sakura heading toward them. "You may not want to teach us your jutsu, but you could teach us better chakra control and taijutsu."

Kakashi sighed as he saw Sasuke look at Naruto in seemingly new found respect, before he turned back to him with a glare. "I can only teach you the Sharingan style of taijutsu if you have the Sharingan," he said to Sasuke and Naruto.

"That's fine," Naruto said. Sasuke seemed to not mind that he was leading the negotiations. "But I know you were once an ANBU captain so people owe you favors. I'm sure you can get some of them to teach us taijutsu that suits me and Sakura while you teach Sasuke."

Sakura had just made it over and was looking at all three of the boys wondering what they were talking about.

"But Sasuke doesn't have the Sharingan," Kakashi stated holding on to his last thread of hope. He really did not want them to learn too much too fast.

"But if I gain it will you teach me," Sasuke asked hopefully.

Kakashi's shoulders sagged. "Of course," he said.

"What…"

"Then we just have to get Sasuke to activate his," Naruto said accidently interrupting Sakura. "Sakura and I can take care of that tomorrow morning while you find some people to train us."

Sakura was looking back and forth between all of them.

"Do you know what it takes to awaken the Sharingan?" Kakashi asked.

"Intense emotion or stressful situation," Sasuke answered right away.

Kakashi nodded before looking at Naruto. "And how do you plan to stimulate that?" he asked him.

"I'll figure out something," Naruto said as he stood up on shaky legs. The Kyubi really knew how to do its job, Kakashi thought. "But you can be sure that he'll regret calling Hinata a bitch in front of me," he finished with a fierce look toward Sasuke and more emotion then Kakashi had seen him show since being on the team. Sasuke glowered right back.

And speaking of team, wasn't he the leader of Team 7? How the hell did he get roped into teaching them chakra control, teaching Sasuke the basic Uchiha style of taijutsu, and using up favors to teach the other two brats their own style?

"And I still have to do missions with them," Kakashi said sadly as he followed behind his team heading back to inner Konoha.

* * *

Hey, hope you like. Ask if you have any questions, or review and tell me what you think.

Bai Bai

_**Hakke Sanjūni Shō**_ (Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms technique)

_**Raiton: Washi no Jutsu**_ (Lightening Release Eagle Technique)

_**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (**_Shadow Clone)

_**Futon: Renkuudan**_: (Wind Element: Air Projectile)

_**Hakkeshō Kaiten**_ (Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin/Rotation)

_**Suiton: Suiben**_ (Water Release: Water Whip)

_**Kamikaze Kaiten**_ (Divine Wind Rotation)


End file.
